


In Medias Res

by amaradangeli



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Captivity, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:39:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 69,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4493964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaradangeli/pseuds/amaradangeli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam and Jack are taken captive and put to work in a mining camp, that turns out to be the least of their troubles. Forced by circumstance to live in close proximity, their time as captives has consequences neither one foresees.<br/><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/semiresponsive1/35747308632/in/album-72157683563675853/"></a><img/><br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Cover art by Samantha-Carter-is-my-muse.

The negotiations were, as always, dry. Daniel was doing most of the talking, Teal'c was doing most of the listening, and Sam spent most of her time taking random items from the colonel and shooting him reproachful glances that had, so far, done not a bit of good in the area of keeping him focused. The looks did, however, seem to be a source of amusement for him as the harder her looks got the brighter his eyes twinkled. He was enjoying it, damn it.

She studied the collection of pebbles, strings, and paper clips she'd appropriated from him over the course of the last six hours. Who knew the man kept so much in his pockets? What was he expecting to have to do? Diffuse a bomb with nothing more than the contents of his pockets? And, if so, he must really love a challenge. The strings and paper clips she could almost believe, but pebbles? Where on P3C-928 had he found all these pebbles? Or had he carried them in his pockets from Earth? Knowing him, either could be equally possible.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him produce yet another item to turn over and over in his hands. His fingers were quick and she had to reach over to cover his hands with her own and finger wrestle him for the thing before she was able to identify it as the tab to a zipper. During the match to win the prize, though, she couldn't help but notice how warm his roughened hands were and how cold hers were. Before she could snatch her hand away out of her sake of propriety, he sandwiched it between his own in a clear effort to warm her skin. She quirked up the side of her mouth in thanks and then he released her.

She zoned back into the negotiations. Little progress had been made since she'd checked out nearly twenty minutes beforehand. They were still discussing how much naquadah the '928 government would trade for the medical supplies Earth was offering. The trouble was, '928 wanted defensive systems and weaponry. The defensive systems, Daniel had told them, could probably be worked out. But the weaponry was off the table. Sam knew all the nuances of the negotiation down to the last detail, after all, she'd helped draft the offer. Her heart, however, was not in the act of negotiation itself, especially not with the constant distraction of the colonel beside her.

Either his pockets were empty or he was lulling her into a false sense of security because he started fiddling with the corner of the button placket of his BDU jacket. He had to have noticed her scrutiny because he held his hand out and made a give it motion with his fingers. Clearly, his pockets were empty and he wanted he toys back. There was part of her that wanted to start handing the items back, one by one, until they could start their game over again, but it was also her job - General Hammond's orders - to keep the colonel focused and, so far, she hadn't done a great job. As a matter of fact he'd served to distract her more than was prudent for such negotiations. Not that she was greatly needed; Daniel was doing a fine job.

After the seventh hour of negotiations, everyone was starting to get a little restless, including the people who had started the day shooting the fidgety colonel dirty looks. The '928 negotiator suggested they break until the following day, just in time for dinner. After dinner, they'd offer tours of either the capital city's educational facilities or their current defensive capabilities.

For the first time the colonel spoke up. When Daniel expressed an interest in seeing the educational facilities, Jack pulled rank and sent Teal'c along with him. She knew the colonel was interested in seeing the defensive capabilities but that he was also interested in keeping her close. He had been for the entire time they'd been on the planet. Something, he'd told her, he couldn't quite put his finger on gave him the willies. She'd given him a hard time and asked what the tactical advice was for something that gave one the willies. If memory serves, he'd rolled his eyes at her and just told her to stay close.

So, though Teal'c would have enjoyed the defensive tour much more than the educational one, SG-1 was summarily split up to explore various factions of the city. That was the point at which the negotiations, though the table was currently closed, came to a grinding halt.


	2. Chapter 1

Jack groaned as he came to. His head was throbbing like he'd just been on a three day bender. He looked around. He was in a room. Three doors, benches against the walls, a table in a corner. And... full of women and the women were just... watching him. Warily. Several moved to cradle heavily pregnant bellies and others looked at him as if he could snap at any moment. At the moment, though, he didn't feel up for much more than shifting into a sitting position.

He looked closer at the women. Aside from those who were heavily pregnant, he detected smaller pregnant bellies on more than a few. In all there must have been a dozen and a half women, all of whom appeared to be in some stage of pregnancy.

A couple yards away, Sam was sprawled inelegantly and face down across the stone floor. He stretched one leg towards her and nudged her calf with the toe of his boot. "Carter." No response. He nudged her harder, cleared his throat and said her name louder, "Carter!" The women flinched back from strength of his voice. But still, Sam didn't stir.

Jack looked back over at the women. "Water?"

One, who looked very young and also very pregnant pointed towards a door where several buckets were lined up against the wall.

Jack pushed himself up to his knees and then, when his head stopped spinning, onto his feet. A wave of nausea rolled up and he had to wait for it to pass. Once it had, he made his way to the buckets and found them equipped with dippers. He took a long drink to soothe his parched throat then took the dipper, full of water, over to Sam. From his place standing over her, he nudged her shoulder. "Hey Carter, wakey, wakey." She groaned. He dropped, creakily, to one knee next to her and placed a hand on the back of her neck. "C'mon, Carter. Up and at 'em."

"Sir?" she slurred and blinked her eyes slowly a couple of times. Between his headache and her reaction he figured they were both likely concussed. He helped her into a sitting position then passed her the dipper of water. She drank gratefully.

"You back with me?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes, sir."

"Good. 'Cause I have no idea where the hell we are."

She looked around the room, slowly, likely taking in the abnormally high proportion of pregnant women the same way he had. "Weren't we just on a tour of the city's defensive facilities?"

"By the way I've got to piss I'd say that was a while ago."

"I feel like I've been drugged."

"And conked on the head," he agreed.

"Yeah. Daniel and Teal'c?" she asked.

He just shook his head. He canted his head in the direction of the women. "Who do you think they are?"

"I don't know. Have you asked?"

He could forgive her peevish tone considering their circumstances.

"Ladies," he directed their way, "where are we? And who are you?"

One of the women stood, her dress flowed down around her and accentuated her heavily pregnant belly. "We are the bearers. And you are in Trinigoth, the mining camp."

"Mining camp. Great."

"The bearers?" Sam asked.

"Pregnant," he said and cocked his head in the direction of the women.

"All of you?" Sam asked loudly enough to be heard throughout the room.

"We are all with child, yes," the standing woman said.

"Where are the men?" Sam wondered.

"And the not-so-pregnant women?"

"You are in the bearers chambers."

"You got a name?" Jack asked the woman.

"I am called Farren."

"Well, Farren, I'm Jack and this here's Carter. You wouldn't happen to know how we got here, would you?"

"You were brought by the bringers and left here to awaken. It is what they do with all new residents."

"Residents?" Sam asked.

"Like hell."

"When new ones come to the camp, like you were, they sleep."

"Sleep, passed out, potato-"

"Sir," Sam warned.

Farren continued, "Soon, the overseers will come for you."

"That doesn't sound good," Jack muttered just loud enough for Sam to hear him.

"But food will come first," the young woman who pointed out the water spoke up.

"Yes," Farren said, "and you must eat. You have been here all night and soon, the midday meal will arrive."

"At least they'll feed us, sir."

"It is the bearers who will feed you," Farren said, "not the overseers. We will share with you what we have."

"Hey, look," Jack said, suddenly uncomfortable with the idea of taking food from pregnant women, "we can wait until we get to wherever we're going."

"You cannot. You will not be provided for until you are assigned a living station. And we are well considered, better than the rest. You would do well to take what we offer you."

"A living station would be great, but I'd settle for a bathroom."

Farren smiled, "There are toilet and bathing facilities through that door." She indicated the door near the buckets of water.

Jack smiled gratefully and turned to Sam. "Ladies first?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Two men brought lunch on two large rolling carts. The shelves were filled with bowls of fruits, plates of meat and bread, and pitchers of juice. As Farren had indicated, even once all the women had filled their plates there was plenty of food to be had so Jack no longer felt bad and pushed Sam towards the food first, then put some onto a plate for himself when she was done.

Having been captive before, and more than one time, Sam wasn't quite sure what to make of this place. They'd been left alone and fed well - though if Farren were to be believed it's not that Sam and the colonel were well fed but that the pregnant women were. But... how bad a place could it be if the women were cared for so well?

"The mining camp," Sam asked after she'd slaked the worst of her hunger, "it's for mining naquadah?"

"Yes," Farren said. "Though we also mine the jewels that run amongst the veins of naquadah."

"How often do new  _residents,"_ he said the word but his face screwed up like it tasted bad in his mouth, "come to the camp?"

"Seldom," Farren said. "This is my second child and you're only the fourth and fifth I have seen."

"What's going to happen when the overseers come for us?"

"That I do not know, exactly. I was born into the camp, I know only what I have heard."

"What have you heard?" Sam asked.

"That our ways will be explained to you and you will be assigned a place to live."

"Well, that sounds relatively harmless," Sam said to the colonel. "Doesn't it all just sound a little too...  _nice_?"

"Well, we've been in worse spots, I think. But in my experience things that are normally too good to be true usually aren't."

"Mine too. So now what?"

He got that  _what the hell_  look on his face and got up to try the door the food had come through before. It was unlocked.

"You should not leave," Farren said. "The overseers do not lock us in but we are forbidden from leaving."

"What happens if you leave?"

"It has been a long time since anyone has attempted it, but there are stories of residents being put to death."

"Well, there's the first shoe," the colonel said and closed to door.

"What if there are guards somewhere?" Sam asked.

"Without our weapons and without having any idea what the layout of this joint is, I'm not sure we attempt an escape right now."

"We'll get a free tour at some point anyway," Sam said. "Eventually the overseers will come for us. It's a rather innocuous name, don't you think? Do you think this could all be a misunderstanding?"

"Drugged and/or conked on the head, Major."

"Right," she said with a nod. "Not a misunderstanding."

"And yet, we were left here with these ladies who have taken pretty good care of us so far."

"We are not captives here," Farren reiterated. "We are residents."

"And none of you want to go anywhere besides this room?" the colonel asked incredulously.

"We are only confined to this room because you are here. If you were not we would use that door," Farren pointed behind Jack and Sam, "to access our living stations. This room is where we socialize and take our meals, away from the fray that can be the main dining room."

"Fray?" Sam asked quietly so only the colonel could hear.

"That's the sound of the other shoe being untied," the colonel said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A couple of hours after lunch the colonel seemed restless while they waited on the overseers to arrive. "How long is this supposed to take?" Jack asked Farren.

"I cannot tell you," she said somewhat apologetically.

"I'm going nuts here," Jack muttered.

Sam reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of the crap he'd loaded into his pockets before the negotiation meeting had started. He'd always needed something to do with his hands and she had a tendency to take things from him, so he'd learned to be prepared with  _lots_  of stuff in his pockets.

He accepted the handful of strings, paperclips, and pebbles gratefully. "Thanks." He stuck it all into one pocket but came back out with a pebbled that he rolled between his fingertips.

"So, the women don't work the mines?" Sam asked Farren.

"The bearers do not. The others do."

"And you think that's what we've been brought here to do? Work the mine?"

"All residents must work."

"What if you don't want to work the mines?" Jack asked her.

Farren looked confused. "All residents must work."

"It's like she's been brainwashed," Sam said quietly to the colonel. "All residents must work? But in the city we saw plenty of people who lived perfectly normal lives."

"It's a worker's faction, like on the ice planet."

"Only... nicer?"

"We don't know that yet, Major."

"Do you think Daniel and Teal'c are here somewhere?"

"You think this was set up by the '928 government?"

She shrugged. "I don't know." Sam asked Farren, "Is there somewhere else, like this, where other new...  _residents..._ are taken?"

"No. They all come here."

"So we have to assume Daniel and Teal'c are still safe and are working on getting us out of here," the colonel said.

"Do you think this has something to do with the negotiations?" Sam asked him. "The last thing I remember is the tour. You?"

"Well, I don't remember being drugged and dragged into captivity, if that's what you mean."

"The last thing I remember is being shown the land to air missiles."

"Me too."

"So, something must have happened then."

"Yeah, we were taken captive," the colonel snarked.

"I  _meant_ we must have been attacked somehow."

"That could be where the druggy feeling comes in."

"And some drugs have been known to cause a sort of amnesia."

"Well, I'd say we're both experiencing a little of that."

"Yes, sir."

The colonel turned back to Farren. "You said the others who were brought before, that they were... asleep... like Major Carter and I were?"

"Yes, and they awoke similarly distressed."

"And with no memory of being brought here?"

"Yes."

"Does this sort of thing ever happen to the residents?"

"No," she said, "never to the residents. Life is not easy here for the miners, but the overseers are fair."

"What about the rest of the residents?"

"There can be... trouble," she said carefully. "For the single women especially."

The colonel glanced at Sam uncomfortably. "How so?"

"Women are outnumbered by the men nearly five-fold."

"Ah," the colonel said with understanding.

"I can take care of myself, sir." She said it, she meant it, but it didn't mean she wasn't a little nervous about this new revelation.

"You should not, not if you have Jack to pair with you. It would be safer to be a pair."

Sam didn't like the concern in Farren's voice. Not one bit. "Paired," she said nonplussed.

"There are men who force the women to bed," the young woman who pointed out the water said.

"Only the single women?" the colonel asked.

"Sometimes the paired women." The implication was clear: if the women were left alone, bad things could happen.

"You're sticking with me, Carter."

Not a single part of her wanted to object. Even if it weren't for the threat of rape, tactically, being with him was the better bet. "Yes, sir."

After that there was quiet for a while. The colonel toyed with the pebble he'd taken out of his pocket until that didn't interest him anymore and he switched to linking his four paper clips together then pulling them apart.

"The last meal will come soon," Farren said after a long, indeterminate while after which Sam had counted all the stones on the floor, twice.

"We've been here since last night," the colonel said. "The overseers should come for us soon, too, yeah?"

"Yes. You have been left longer than most."

"I'm ready to get this show on the road," the colonel said and Sam had to admit he'd been getting more fidgety as time passed, almost jumpy. He was a man of action. The waiting had to be killing him.

Soon enough after that the door at the back of the room, the one that led to the living stations for the bearers, was unlocked with an audible snick.

The colonel spun on his heels and faced the door likely thinking the same thing she was: the food came through the other door.

"Okay," he said, "let's do this thing."


	3. Chapter 2

A non-threatening looking man and woman stepped into the room. Farren greeted them. "Stellan, Avani, it is good to see you."

"We've brought fresh water," the woman said and she hefted a bucket up to waist level as if to show it off.

"That is very kind," Farren said.

"These must be the new residents," the man said and Jack thought he detected a hint of apology in the man's voice.

"Jack," Farren said indicating him, "and his woman, Carter."

Sam gave a sickly half smile that Jack thought probably had more to do with meeting new people than being attached to him so publicly. He hoped, at least.

"Are you the overseers?" Jack asked, getting straight to the point.

"Oh, no," the woman said with a smile. "They will be coming. We are just residents. I care for the bearers when the mining is done. I am Avani. It is nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Jack said, perturbed that still the overseers hadn't arrived. "Pleasure."

"Stellan and Avani are paired," Farren said. "Perhaps you have questions for them."

"Oh, plenty," Jack said.

"I don't know where to start," Sam agreed.

"It is good you have arrived paired," Stellan said.

"So we've heard," Jack said and shot a glance at Farren hoping she'd not contradict the man. She didn't.

"It is nice to see new faces, we seldom get them."

"I am not sure they find it as nice, my love," Stellan said.

Avani's smile faltered. "My apologies," she said to Sam and Jack, "I'm sure you are confused."

"Oh, that's the least of it," Jack said.

"Avani," Stellan said sharply, and she looked at him then cast her eyes downward. He turned to Jack. "She knows of no other life, forgive her."

Jack waved dismissively. "So you're a transplant, too?" he surmised.

"I was taken from the city, yes. Nearly ten years ago now."

"This facility we're in," Jack questioned Stellan, "are there guards?"

"Many, but they do not usually venture so far inside."

"So you don't exactly up and walk out of here, do you?"

"You do not."

"Great," Jack said to Sam, "we woke up in the Hotel California." He turned back to Stellan. "These overseers... good guys?"

"They are not the ones you need to worry about. They will merely hold you here."

"And force us into slave labor."

"The dangers will not be to you, Jack," Stellan said.

"Stellan," Avani said in a rushed, hushed tone. "They do not need you to scare them."

"He needs to understand. And so does she." He looked back at Jack. "You should stay with her at all times, especially in the nights," Stellan warned ominously.

"I get the impression this isn't an idle warning, Carter."

Sam visibly swallowed. "Same here, sir."

That was the second time they'd been warned about what could happen to Carter if she was left alone. There was always an added threat to her when they were in captivity, but this time it seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

Jack looked from Carter to Avani. He could see why Stellan would be careful. Aside from being very pretty she was small and delicate looking. Jack doubted she could defend herself if need be. But Sam, he'd watched Sam kick some serious ass and there wasn't a doubt in his mind she'd kick more if she had to. That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't going to heed the advice of Stellan and Farren; he'd stay with Sam as much as possible.

"If you are vigilant, she will be fine," Stellan offered and it seemed to Jack like the man was attempting to smooth over the roughest parts of the things he'd just said.

"I wonder," Jack said to no one in particular, "if the men outnumber the women so greatly, why isn't it just as dangerous for the men as it is for the women?"

"It can be," Stellan said, "but we are stronger. When there are women to prey on, the beasts take the easy route.

"Okay, so good. We'll both be watching our backs." Jack said while rolling his eyes. This place just kept getting better and better.

"From which city do you come?" Avani asked quickly as Jack and Stellan wound down. It was clear she was anxious for a change in topic.

Sam looked at him and he gave her a small nod. "We're not from your planet. We came through the stargate from Earth," she said.

"Oh," Avani said, "the ring."

"You know of it?"

"Of course," Avani said, "we all do. People come through the ring from many planets to make deals for the naquadah we mine."

"What sort of oppressed people know about such a spectacular means of escape but don't take it?" Sam asked him quietly.

Stellan, however, overheard her. "The guards are many."

Jack crossed his arms over his chest. "So we've got mining, we've got guards, we've got the threat of rape, and a whole bunch of people, except Stellan here, who are happy to be here. What the hell is going on in this place?"

"There are others like me, who long to go back to their lives outside the camp."

"Good," Jack said. "That's good." More dissatisfied residents might prove to be their only upper hand. "You've seen these guards, right?" Jack said, suddenly worried that perhaps the whole thing was a sham and that the people were held under the threat of something that didn't even exist.

"I have, and you will too, on your way to the mines."

"Yeah, and when will that be?"

"Once the overseers come."

"And we should not be here when they do," Avani said. "It is nearly time for last meal and time for us to go. Do you need anything else?" she asked the women. After a chorus of nos she turned back to Sam and Jack. "It was nice to meet you both."

"Same here," Jack said. "Thanks for the information."

"I will find you in the living stations tomorrow," Stellan said. "And then you will know where we are should you need anything further."

And with that, they were gone.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

By the time last meal came the colonel was in a snit. They'd been locked in the room for nearly an entire day, even if they had slept their way through a good portion of it. But he was not a man who dealt well with no distraction and the items in his pocket had long since lost his attention.

Sam picked at a plate of fruit but with all the inactivity, she found she wasn't really hungry.

"You should eat, Major," the colonel said with no small amount of command in his voice.

"I'm not hungry, sir."

"We don't know what the eating situation is going to be like when we get out of here. Farren said the bearers are provided for well, that indicates that maybe the other residents aren't."

Sam sighed. He was probably right. She added a serving of meat and a piece of bread to her plate. He gave her a nod and went back to his own dinner.

They were sat together shoulder to shoulder so they could talk quietly. "When we get out of here, standard recon, Carter. We can't chance making a break for it until we know what we're up against."

"We're talking about making a break for it?"

"What, you were planning to stay?"

"No, sir," she said with a smile.

"Did you get a weird vibe from Avani?"

"Just that she doesn't seem to have any qualms about living here."

"I can't get a read on this place. All the women so far have seemed..."

"Content?"

"Well, yeah. And then there's Stellan. I get the feeling he's looking for a way out, too."

"What are you thinking, sir?"

"Nothing. Yet."

"You're always thinking something."

"Okay, well, not much. Yet."

Sam didn't buy it for a moment. He was probably thinking the same thing she was thinking. If there were more like Stellan there was potential for getting out. But others were as much liability as help. If there were as many guards as Stellan indicated, a large group might be needed to overtake them, but there was a fine line between necessary stealth and brute force.

"Whatever we do will depend on the guards," Sam said.

"And the other residents."

"I don't know what to expect."

"Me either. And you know how much I love surprises." He fidgeted nervously. "Listen, Carter... about all the things Stellan was saying... I want you to watch your back. And I want you to stay close to me whenever possible-"

"Sir-"

He held up a forestalling hand. "I know you can take care of yourself. This isn't about that. This is about us walking into a known bad situation with no other information. I'd want the guys sticking close, too."

"I wasn't going to argue, sir."

"Oh."

She went back to pushing her food around her plate.

"Eat, Major." He took a big bite of bread to make his point and it took him a while to swallow. "What do you make of the pregnant ladies?"

"I don't know. None of them seem upset about their situation. If anything, I'd think being pregnant here would be a plus. No mining. It appears no work at all. Pregnancy must be seen as a way of increasing their numbers."

"Yeah."

"Maybe the women want to be pregnant."

"To raise their kids in slavery?"

"They don't seem to see it that way. And you heard Stellan. For many of them, this is probably the only life they know."

"There are things about this place that are already making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up."

"Mine too, sir."

"Just... stick close, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

They finished their meal in relative silence. Sam contemplated their predicament. How strange that they'd spent the entire day with the pregnant women. And also strange, the couple they'd met. So dichotomous and yet apparently paired. Avani had seemed happy. Stellan... cautious, possibly rebellious. And still they sat waiting to find out their fate.

Then, heavy footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. The colonel pushed himself up off bench he was seated on and discarded his empty plate. There was tension through his shoulders even as she saw him adopt a cavalier sort of posture meant to unsettle whomever was about to walk through the door.

The footsteps continued growing louder. She counted three, possibly more. Then, the footsteps stopped. The door pushed open and three men in full combat gear, clearly a security force stepped into the room.

Sam stood up, abandoning her plate on the bench where she'd been sat.

"The new residents," one man addressed the group, "will come with us."

"Are you the overseers?" the colonel asked in a strong, willful voice.

"They are not," Farren said. "But the overseers will see you now."

One of the men made a step towards Sam and the colonel stepped forward and between her and the imposing man. "Take us to your leaders."

It felt ominous, but she had to hide a grin.


	4. Chapter 3

It was quite a walk down long halls and more than a few turns were taken. Jack wasn't completely sure he could get back to the room they'd started in if he had to. At least not on the first try. He was sorely tempted to antagonize the guards who were leading them to the overseers but the pensive look on Sam's face held him in check.

Finally, they made one last left turn and the hallway opened into large stone room. At the front of the room, on a raised platform behind a long desk sat two men and a woman dressed similarly to the leaders who had been in the naquadah negotiation.

"We are the overseers," the woman said as Jack and Sam came to a stop a good fifteen feet away from the desk.

Jack couldn't help himself anymore. "Well, it's about time." In his peripheral vision he could see Sam flinch at his tone.

"You have been brought here to join the mining camp," the woman continued evenly as if Jack hadn't even spoken. "You will not be permitted to go back to the city."

"We're not even  _from_  your city. We're representatives from the planet Earth here to negotiate trade for naquadah."

"Because you are paired," one of the men picked up, again as if Jack hadn't said a word, "you will be assigned to a living station with other paireds."

The second man continued, "You will have first meal at sunrise, you will work the mine, you will break for the mid-day meal, you will continue your work until sundown at which time you will have last meal."

"Do you get the feeling they're not listening to a word I'm saying?" Jack asked Sam in full voice.

"Yes, sir," she whispered back.

"Your days will not change unless the woman becomes a bearer," the woman said. "Unless you are with child now?" she asked almost hopefully.

"Don't answer that, Carter."

"We will know soon enough," the woman said, acknowledging Jack's words for the first time. "Take them to the inspection rooms."

Two of the guards stepped forward. One grabbed Jack by the upper arm and propelled him forward. He saw the other do the same to Sam, just hauling her off in the other direction.

"Hey!" Jack said and struggled in the man's firm grip.

"We will reunite you when your examinations are complete," the first man said. "There is no need to be alarmed."

"I find this whole situation pretty damned alarming," Jack said and yanked his arm again for good measure. It was clear the man wasn't going to let him go, despite his protests, and that they had no intention of paying him any more attention than absolutely necessary. They were taking Carter, too, and she was looking like she was moments away from a struggle that could possible cause her harm. Better to go with the flow for the moment, live to fight another day, and all of that. He settled down and hoped it would help her do the same. "Look sharp, Carter," he said just as they were completely separated and led in opposite directions.

"Yes, sir," she called back.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They were, in fact, reunited after their examinations were complete.

"You okay?" the colonel asked after being propelled to stand right next to her before the overseers once more.

"I'm fine, sir," she said with a grimace. Though she could have done without the questions about her reproductive history. Not that she gave any answers other than polite variations on  _go to hell._

"Nothing... invasive?" he asked quietly.

"Not unless you count a blood draw."

"Yeah. Okay."

She wanted to ask about what had happened to him, but she knew she wouldn't get any answers, especially not in front of the panel of overseers.

"You will now be taken to your living station. Your work will start tomorrow. Clothing has been provided for you, but you may keep your own clothing as well."

"Gee," the colonel said snidely. "How big of you."

Then, they were grabbed and propelled out of the big stone room, out through another maze of halls and then, into a gargantuan room. This one was filled with cubicles made of paper screens that reached from the floor up about ten feet, about two feet below the high ceiling.

As they wove through the narrow passageways between rows and columns, a few people milled about, but most were inside their cubicles. Lamps from within threw their silhouettes into visible shadows. Privacy was apparently no large concern. Though, Sam figured, it could be worse. It could have been a barracks situation such as they'd had on the ice planet.

They were finally shown to a cubicle near the center of the room. The guards left them without a word.

Sam looked around. The entire living space was approximately ten feet by ten feet. A bed, not too narrow, but not even a double by Earth standards, stood near one edge of the room. The rest of the space was filled with a bedside table, a dresser and a bookshelf. On the bedside table was a lamp and, when the colonel pulled open the dresser, they found the clothing.

"Cozy," he said.

"No walls, no door, just... paper."

"There's a screen to use as a door," he pointed out as if that were at all helpful.

She took in the bed once more. Two pillows, a thin blanket... While there was plenty of room on the floor to sleep, it wasn't going to be comfortable and she wasn't looking forward to it.

"I'll take the floor," the colonel said as if he could read her thoughts.

"No, sir. I'll be fine."

" _No, sir?"_

She spoke quietly, conscious of their neighbors, one couple who had the light on and another who had apparently already turned in for the night. "Sir, I'm perfectly capable of sleeping on the floor."

"You know, Carter," he said just as quietly and a little pensively, "I'm not so sure either one of us should sleep on the floor."

He was right. The way the light shone through the paper, their lives were on veritable display and they were supposed to be paired. What would happen to them if word got out that one of them slept on the floor? She sighed. "This is like a situation from a bad TV movie."

"One bed," he said and waggled his eyebrows. "I don't know, Carter. I always liked that setup."

She sat down on the edge of the bed and checked her watch. "Twenty-one hundred. What time do you think the sun rises?"

"Six?"

"If we have to be up before dawn, we'd probably better got to sleep soon."

"I'm not exactly tired, Carter."

"Really?" she asked him. "I'm exhausted." The day, the worry, the questions, it had all just really taken a toll on her.

"Well, why don't you turn in? I'm sure there's something in the dresser you can use as pajamas," he indicated the dresser.

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to sit right here."

"You don't want to go have a look around?"

He looked at her sharply. "I'm not leaving you here."

"Oh," she said. "Right."

"Well, I guess I'll get changed, then." She got up and went to the dresser. There were some obvious work clothes – pants and tunics – that appeared to be a one-size-fits-all situation. In the next drawer down she found undergarments, stretchy, more of the his-and-hers variety. In the last drawer she found a stack of soft shifts next to a lighter weight stack of pants and shirts. She assumed the shifts were for her.

She pulled one out of the drawer and cleared her throat, "I'll change now."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack spun on his heels and presented her with his back. "Go ahead, Major."

It wasn't that he'd never been in a room with her before when she'd changed. Too many years in tents together had seen to that. But after everything that had been happening for the past many months, it was just a little too close to tempting to know she was undressing behind him, even considering their circumstances.

He could hear the rustle of her BDUs as she changed.

"Tomorrow we find out where we can bathe," she said to his back.

He couldn't help but chuckle. "Feeling a little grimy, Carter?"

"It's been two days since I showered. Yes, sir."

He laughed outright.

"Hey, you're the one who has to sleep with me. Go ahead and laugh."

That sobered him right up. Not the fact that he'd be sleeping with an unshowered version of Carter, just that he'd be sleeping with her at all. He knew it was the most prudent thing, and he knows he'd been the one to bring it up, but it still felt just this side of scandalous. The  _right_ kind of scandalous.

"Carter, I've bunked with Teal'c on a six day mission hiking through a rainforest. I think I can handle this."

Her answering chuckled tingled from the top of his head down to his toes. He'd always liked her laugh, but the tingle was new and probably had a lot to do with the fact that he was going to crawl into bed with her shortly.

"Okay," she finally said and he turned around. Her back was to him, she was folding her BDUs and stacking them on top of the dresser. The shift she was wearing was sleeveless and went all the way down to the floor. It was completely utilitarian and not terribly flattering, though it hugged her hips in just the right way, but he still found his mouth going dry.

He needed to get a grip. The direction his thoughts were going was completely inappropriate. And then, to make matters worse, she turned around and he forgot how to swallow.

"Sir, are you okay?"

"What? Oh. Yes. Fine... Fine."

She nodded slowly. "Right."

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You know what? I think I might turn in, too."

"Okay," she said slowly but she slid into the bed scooting all the way to the side nearest the wall. He was glad he didn't have to ask her to let him put himself between her and the door. Gladder still he didn't have to order it.

She turned onto her side and faced the wall and he took that as his privacy to get changed for bed.

"There's something for you to wear in the bottom drawer."

"Oh. Okay, thanks."

That was good because otherwise he'd have to sleep in his clothing or go to bed with her dressed in his boxers and t-shirt and he wasn't sure he was completely comfortable with that.

"And clean underwear in the middle drawer."

"Right," he said gruffly. The idea that she'd stripped down to nothing right behind him to put on alien underwear was doing strange things to his insides.  _Best not to give that too much thought._

He quickly exchanged his clothing for the provided sleepwear and then crawled into the bed next to her.

"I..." he cleared his throat. "I'm going to turn the light out now."

"Okay, sir."

He reached over and clicked the light off. Once he did he felt her shift onto her back. Years of sleeping near her off world gave him a pretty good picture of her: on her back, one arm up under her head, the other across her belly.

He shifted and tried to get comfortable. The mattress was a little soft for his liking and he knew his back would hurt in the morning. He shifted again. The lights had been out thirty seconds and he was already bored.

"Still not tired, sir?" she asked when he shifted again.

"Nope."

"So, tomorrow we mine," she said inanely, and he knew she was just trying to occupy him with mundane conversation. He appreciated the effort, it was going to be a while before he slept and he knew, in this strange place, he wouldn't sleep deeply. Neither would she. Unless...

"I'll take first watch, Carter."

She sighed and relaxed, he felt the bed shift under her.

"Thank you, sir."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She woke to the stirrings of the other people in the surrounding living stations. Next to her the colonel was snoring softly.

"Sir," she said and touched his shoulder gently.

"What is it?" He asked, sitting up abruptly.

"Everything's fine," she soothed him. She hadn't meant to startle him. "But I think it's time to get up."

He scrubbed a hand over his face then scratched his belly through the thin tunic. "Okay."

"You didn't wake me for watch."

"You were sleeping soundly, didn't see much point in waking you."

"I did sleep well." And she had. She didn't usually sleep well in strange places and she refused to chalk it up to the relative safety his presence bought, though, if she were being completely honest, it didn't hurt.

"Where do you think the facilities are in this place?"

"I guess we'll have to ask. But I'd like to get dressed first."

He looked over at her then and she was suddenly very aware she was sitting next to him in a thin shift. "Right. Dressed first."

They both dressed quickly, first one turning their back and then the other. They both opted for their BDUs as they were not really dirty considering they hadn't done much since donning them two days prior. Besides, their boots looked a lot sturdier than the shoes that had been provided. They looked like they were made to fit many sizes of foot and she wasn't sure that was the best option for mining, though she guessed most of the residents would be wearing those very shoes.

They stepped out into the passageway and there were people milling about. The first people they encountered were polite if terse and pointed them in the direction of the communal bathrooms, one for the women and one for the men.

"I'll be here when you get out," he said and pointed at a spot on the floor.

She knew why he was being so diligent so it didn't rankle the way it could have. "Yes, sir."

The bathroom was large. There were banks showers, a couple of tubs, several rows of toilet stalls and a wall of sinks. It would be perfectly serviceable if it weren't so crowded. She waited in line for a toilet and it felt like it took her forever to join him back in the hallway.

"Shower time is going to be a madhouse," he said when she approached him.

She grinned at him. "I think you're right."

"Guess it's a good thing we're used to communal showers, huh?"

She grimaced that time. "Yeah, but I'd still rather have something more private."

"Just another reason to get home as quick as we can."

They started walking with the flow of people through the halls, passed the entrance to the living stations. "By now, Daniel and Teal'c will be back at the SGC," she said idly.

"Or already back on the planet with SG-3."

"I wonder how far from the city we are."

"No telling. We were out for a while." He maneuvered her around some people who were standing in the hallway chatting. "Tonight we'll meet with Stellan and see if we can start figuring a way out of this."

The herd or people continued moving them forward until they were pushed through a door that led into what was clearly a cafeteria of some sort. They joined the line. They crept forward and eventually made it up to some servers who made a plate for the colonel first and then another, smaller, one for her. She didn't think much of it, she wasn't a huge breakfast eater anyway, but she didn't miss the colonel's scowl.

As they approached one of the long tables, a couple stood up and carried their empty plates off. Sam and the colonel sat down in the newly vacated space. Sam poked at her food. It looked vaguely like thick oatmeal that could be cut into squares.

"You're gonna be hungry later," the colonel said as he cut a portion of his breakfast off with the side of his fork and attempted to hand it off to her.

"Whoa, sir," she held up a hand. "No, thank you. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to eat all of this. You know I don't do breakfast."

"Carter-"

"Really, sir."

He sighed dramatically. "I wonder why I got more than you."

Across the table a man grunted and said, "Because the men work harder."

"Mining is hard work for anyone."

"When your woman can produce as much as you do in a given day, then you will see – you will work harder."

Sam reached out and touched the colonel's arm lightly, forestalling the retort that was clearly aching to be released. "It's fine," she said quietly and took a bite of her thick oatmeal. It wasn't half bad, but it was still breakfast.

It didn't take long to eat and, like the others they saw around then, as soon as they were finished they got up and followed the people out of the room and back into the hall. The halls were less crowded leaving the cafeteria so they were following the backs of several couples.

"I think it's best we just try to get a lay of the land today," the colonel said. "Blend in, play along."

"Is that what you were doing back there? Blending in?" she chided gently.

They took a turn in the hallway. "I just don't understand."

They took one more turn and the hallway opened to the outdoors. "Whoa," Sam said. "Look at these mountains."

"They were in the distance from the city. Probably, what, three hundred klicks?"

"At least."

They followed the throng of people to the mouth of a cave where they were each picking up pickaxes as they entered. At the entrance stood a half a dozen guards.

"Well," he said, "this isn't the weak link."

"No, sir."

"Okay, Carter," he said, hefting a pickaxe over his shoulder. "Here we go."


	5. Chapter 4

It was long, hot, dusty work. And Jack didn't care much for keeping his head down and going with the flow. He was trying to be as mild mannered as he could because he was concerned for Sam's safety and he didn't want to put her on edge anymore than she already had to be. He figured, though, that they were safer mining than she would be left to her own devices inside. At least this way he could keep an eye on her.

So far he'd caught sideways glances at her when a throng of single men had flooded the mine. It was clear they were clocking the new game. He'd moved to work closer to her, but it hadn't stopped the looking.

He looked over at her. She seemed oblivious to the extra attention. As a matter of fact, she was single mindedly mining. Though, with the intense focus he could see on her face, she was probably thinking as much as she was mining.

"You're doing pretty good with all of this," he said to her.

She let the pick of the axed fall under the toe of her boot and held out her right hand. "I've got blisters."

"I meant you're doing pretty good with all this  _we're captive_ stuff."

"We're getting out, right?" She said and when she was speaking he could hear a little edge in her voice telling him that it was wearing her down a little after all.

"Yeah, Carter. We're getting out."

"Good," she said and swung the axe back up and then against the surface she was mining.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Lunch proved to work a lot like breakfast. Move into the cafeteria, get a plate of food – more for the men, less for the women – eat, vacate your seat for the next people to take so they could eat. There was no lingering, no chatting, no rest.

Sam's hands were red, blistered and sore.

As the day wore on and the single men kept staring at her, the colonel got quiet and developed a hard look. She wished he'd just stake his claim and get it over with. Maybe if he did the looks would stop and she could get back to being miserable in private.

She tried to keep her spirits up, but with each swing of the pickaxe she felt herself spiraling further down into anger at their situation. At the current moment, there was nothing they could do. Part of her wanted to rush into figuring a way out and part of her was sure Daniel and Teal'c were coming for them.

It was too early to feel so hopeless, so she clung to the idea that Stellan was the face of a revolution or that Daniel would somehow be able to talk them out, or that SG-3 and Teal'c would muscle them out.

She found herself dwelling on the idea that if she was out of the colonel's sight she was likely to be raped. Or, at least some poor sonuvabitch would attempt it because she'd be damned if she wouldn't kill the first person who tried and  _then_ where would they be?

After another couple hours, when the sun was shifting in the sky signaling their day would be over in an hour or two the colonel looked over at her and said, "Let me see your hands."

"I'm fine."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As the sun went down, the workers made their way out of the mine. Jack dropped his pickaxe with the others and followed Sam closely. As the day had worn one she'd become more withdrawn.

They ate dinner without a word between them. She was hungry and she looked exhausted. He slipped her some of his dinner and she didn't even protest, she just ate the four bites of food. When he moved to give her more, though, she held up a hand. "I'm fine."

"Is that all you're going to say to me for the rest of the day?"

She sighed heavily and pushed back from the table. He gobbled down his last bite and followed behind her.

"I'm not mad at you," she said.

"I didn't think you were."

"Oh. Okay."

"C'mon, let's go back to the room."

"I just want to take a shower."

"That's fine, but you'll need clean clothes."

She deflated a little, not that she'd had much starch to begin with after the day they'd had. "Okay."

He took her by the shoulders and turned her in the direction of the living stations. She trudged forward all the way to their little room. He went through the drawers and got her a set of the clothes they'd normally wear to work knowing she'd be more comfortable walking through the halls fully dressed than she would in the nightshirt they'd provided. He pulled a set of the pajamas out of the drawer for himself.

"Here," he handed her the clothing and whispered, "We'll both go take showers. When you're done come straight back here."

"Where are you going?" she whispered back.

"I'm going to find Stellan and Avani. I won't leave you alone long."

She just nodded.

He escorted her to the common bathrooms and then they both went their separate ways. There was a line for the showers but the men were fast about it which he could appreciate. It took him only a few minutes to clean his body using soap from a dispenser on the wall and it took everything he had not to stand under the soothing hot spray for a few minutes more. But he was on a mission.

He toweled off using a provided sheet of terry three times larger than any towel he'd ever owned then hurriedly dressed in his nightwear. He checked for Sam once just to make sure she wasn't waiting – she wasn't – before making his way back into the paireds living stations and beginning his hunt for Stellan or Avani. He found Avani in one of the narrow passageways after about five minutes, four rows from the one he now lived on with Carter.

"Avani."

She looked at him and smiled. "Jack, yes?"

"Yes."

"Have you settled in?"

"As well as we can. Listen... Carter's... Sam's hands are pretty torn up from the mining today. Are there any first aid supplies?"

"First aid?"

"Uh... anything we can put on her blisters? Something to wrap her hands?"

"Oh! Come with me," she said and led him a little further down the row to her own cubicle. She went to her set of shelves, that was filled with various items, and took down a small pot that looked like something that would have come from a pharmacy at home as well as some gauze. "Here. You can put this on her hands and wrap them with the bandages. In a few days time the nurses will come around and you can ask for more of this salve. They will give you anything you need. They come once per week."

"What if something happens and we need medical attention before the nurses come?"

"The guards will take you to the infirmary. But this will likely be enough to avoid that."

"Thank you." He lifted the supplies she'd handed him in thanks. "Hey, is Stellan around?"

She shook her head. "No, I am sorry. He has gone to move some furniture for the bearers. But I can let him know you wanted to see him."

Jack waved her off. "I'll catch up with him tomorrow."

"That will be fine, Jack. Give my regards to... Sam," she said with a small smile for having gotten Sam's name right.

"I will. Thanks again."

Jack made his way back to their cubicle and found Sam lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. "Hey," he said softly to avoid startling her.

"Hi, sir."

He sat down on the bed next to her. "Sit up."

She did without question and saw the supplies in his hands. "What's that?"

"The cure for what ails ya. Or, at least, something that should help. Give me a hand."

She held one of her hands out and he hissed when he saw it. Broken open and brilliant red, it looked painful. "Avani said to put this salve on and then to wrap you up with the gauze."

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Thank you, sir."

"Do you want to change while you can still bend your hands?"

"No, sir," she said quietly. "I can't really bend them right now anyway."

"Okay," he nearly whispered.

Tenderly, he smoothed the salve onto first one blistered hand and wrapped it, then he did the other.

"We'll do you again in the morning, so you'll have the protection of the bandages."

She seemed to sag a little at the thought of another day in the mines. "I almost wish I were pregnant."

He chuckled a little. "I don't know, Carter. At least this way I get to keep an eye on you."

"Yes, sir."

"You ready to change now?"

"Yes."

"Okay." He got up and turned to face the door. He pulled the screen into place for privacy. "Okay, now."

He heard the rustling of her clothing and the drawers being pulled open. Then, silence. "I'm done," she said and he could hear her yawn.

"Get into bed," he said gently. "I'm right behind you."

She sighed softly. "Okay."

And it warmed him, the soft sound of her voice, then the sound of her sliding into their bed. It had been a rough day and the following would likely be no better. Worse, perhaps even, for knowing what was in store.

He slid into the bed next to her and then turned out the light.


	6. Chapter 5

On the second mining day, Jack woke first. Their cubicle was softly lit by the lamp light coming through the paper on either side of them. They shared three walls with neighbors and the effect was a nice, easy-to-wake-up-to glow. Sam was sleeping heavily next to him though both of her hands were gingerly laid upon her belly. He wanted to get a look at her hands before the morning got away from him. So despite not wanting to, he woke her.

"Sam?" He touched her shoulder gently, then trailed the backs of his fingers down her bare upper arm when she didn't immediately stir. "Sam, c'mon. Wake up."

Her eyes opened slowly. Jack's own hands were sore and he'd developed a couple of blisters overnight on top of the few he'd developed during the day, but he was in nowhere near as bad a shape as Sam. "I want to see your hands," he said to her quietly.

Sleepily, she held one up to him. He unwound the dressing as carefully as he could but despite the salve it still clung in a couple of places to the healing skin. She flinched, he hissed, and neither one was very comfortable with the last of the removal process.

"Okay, next," he said and she presented him with her other hand which he was even more careful with than the first.

"I want you to take it easy today," he said to her upon seeing both of her hands. "We'll see if we can work in a corner or something where I can shield you from the view of others. Just make it look like you're working, but try to rest your hands."

"Sir-" she started.

"I'm serious, Sam."

She looked up at him startled and he realized he'd used her name. It wasn't something he did often, wasn't something he'd done in quite a long time, but he realized he'd been calling her that since he woke her. Well, if they were going to be paired, he figured...

"Wait here," he told her, as if there was anywhere she could go in the small room to escape him if she'd wanted to. He retrieved the salve and the bandages from the shelves. He redressed her hands quickly and efficiently and then got back up off the bed.

"We should get dressed," she said to him as she tried bending her hands a little. "That's better. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She pulled her legs up and crossed them and turned on the bed to present him with her back. "You can go first."

"Okay." He dressed quickly in the provided mining clothes and opted for the odd shoes that went with them since his socks had seen better days and he didn't want to wear his boots without them. When he was done he turned his back for her and she dressed quickly, considering the way her hands were wrapped.

Together, they made their way out of their cubicle and to the communal bathrooms.

Breakfast was the thick, cutable oatmeal again.

And there were once again guards at the mouth of the mine.

Sam winced when she picked up the pickaxe but he pretended not to notice, she'd prefer it that way. He found them a relatively secluded spot no far from where they'd worked the day before. He was glad they got to choose before the singles arrived. "Remember," he said, "easy."

She nodded.

He didn't think she had much choice.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night she unwrapped her hands herself before she showered. The soap stung the abrasions and hurt like hell, but she figured clean was a good thing.

The colonel had stood between her and prying eyes all day so she managed to not make the problem much worse, but she'd kill for a handful of ibuprofen. She happened upon Avani in the bathroom after they were both showered and changed – Avani in her sleeping shift and Sam in a clean set of work clothes. Avani gave her a confused look, but her kind smile never quite faltered.

"Hello Sam," Avani greeted her.

"Hi. I wanted to thank you for the salve you gave... Jack... for my hands." Sam held them out to show the woman. "I really appreciate it."

Avani's face turned concerned. "You must be in pain."

"Well, some," Sam conceded to the near stranger, despite loathing the appearance of weakness of any kind. But the woman had been nothing but nice and Sam had a favor to ask. "Do you all have painkillers?"

"Painkillers?"

"Something I can take, a pill or tablet, that will help take the pain away?"

"We have a powder you can mix with water," Avani said with satisfaction, clearly happy to have figured out what Sam needed. "I have some in my station, if you would like to come back with me."

"I'd really appreciate that, thank you."

Sam followed Avani back to her cubicle and found Stellan waiting inside, lounging on the bed reading a book. Sam was surprised to see a book and wondered how he came by it, but it wasn't the time. Not when she could pass along a message. "Stellan, it's nice to see you."

"Sam, is it?"

"Yes."

"Was there something you needed?"

"She needs something for her hands, my love." Avani lifted one of Sam's hands to show Stellan and he whistled lowly. "I gave Jack a salve for her last night, but she needs some Aber powder."

"I would say so."

Stellan seemed more personable than Sam remembered and she decided she liked these people.

"Speaking of Jack," Sam said, "he's been anxious to speak with you."

"Tell him to meet me in the hall after last meal tomorrow and we will speak."

"I will, thank you."

Avani pulled several paper packets down off a shelf and handed them to Sam. "You put one in a dipper of water. Have you gotten a bucket yet?"

"No," Sam said. "I'm afraid we don't have much of anything."

"The overseers rarely fill the stations as they should," Avani huffed and Sam found that Avani reminded her a little of Janet when she was upset about something. "Come, I will get you a bucket. You can fill it in the bathroom any time you like."

"Be careful," Stellan called to Avani as she led Sam out of the cubicle.

"I will, my love," she said with clearly patient exasperation. "He worries," she said unnecessarily. Sam could see that. Jack...  _the colonel..._ worried too.

Avani found Sam a bucket and a dipper and showed Sam a supply room where she could get other things she and the colonel might need. "You simply take what you need and may keep it in your station," Avani told her.

It all seemed a bit... easy to Sam. They were captive but were being provided for quite well, all things considered.

"Laundry comes around once per week as well as the nurses. You've likely not been given enough clothing so you may want to ask for more. They will bring it. And if something doesn't fit you, they can help."

Sam must have looked as floored as she felt.

"You will see, Sam, this place is not as bad as you think it is."

"It's not my home, Avani."

"But it is mine."

"I understand that."

"Do you?" she said. "Stellan is unhappy, he wishes to leave. And so does your Jack. Stellan is my heart as much as this place is my home."

Suddenly Sam knew that Avani understood very well what could happen in a friendship forged between Stellan and the colonel and she was frightened about the possibilities. But Sam couldn't make any promises, especially since she knew she'd probably break every one of them to get home.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack watched as Sam poured the powder out of the packet and onto the back of her tongue before washing it downs with gulps of water from the dipper he handed her.

"Ugh," she said when she'd swallowed the last of it down. "That stuff is awful."

"Better than not having it."

"If it works."

He frowned. Her spirits had been no better today than they had been the day before. He understood, he really did – he wasn't exactly pleased with their situation either – but it still gave him pause. Sam was usually so... well, not crabby.

"Aside from your hands, how're you doing?"

"I'm fine, sir."

"Yeah, you say that, but I don't believe you."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" she hissed hotly, but quietly.

"I want you to be honest with me."

"The truth is,  _sir,_ that I've had it with this place. It's equal parts cozy little mining collective and enforced work camp. I can't stand the mining, my hands hurt like hell, and I wish Daniel, Teal'c and SG-3 would come in guns blazing but I know that's probably not going to happen. They probably don't even know where we are yet, if they ever will. Which means it's up to us to get ourselves out, but instead of working on that we're just standing here." She whispered it all, but he got the distinct impression she was yelling.

Well. He was glad she got that off her chest. She didn't say anything he hadn't been thinking. "I'll meet with Stellan after dinner tomorrow."

She sighed. "I know you will, sir. I'm sorry."

"No, no," he said with a wry chuckle, "I asked."

"I just want to go to bed."

It was early enough, barely past nine. She'd wanted to turn in early each night. He was tired, too, but he had a feeling her need for so much sleep had something to do with being underfed and overwhelmed. The were both eating less than what they would have eaten on Earth, and Sam even less so. "Okay," he said. It wasn't like she was alone. Their neighbors on all three sides were shadows making preparations for bed, their voices low, undiscernible murmurs through the paper.

She turned to get her nightdress off the bed where she'd left it laid out after getting dressed that morning. Without waiting for him to turn around she began stripping off the work shirt she was wearing. He spun on his heels, the flash of the white skin of her back enough to propel him into motion.

When he heard her climb into the bed and slip between the sheets he turned back around. When he did, he was presented with the silhouettes of the neighbors wrapped in an embrace. It made him want to touch her. Not in any particular...  _way,_ just touch. He slid in next to her and turned out the light.

He covered the hand that was on her belly with his and closed his eyes.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The next three mornings, when Sam woke the colonel had a hand on her belly. When she'd gone to sleep each night her hand had been in between - at first with the bandages and now, without. She knew he was a tactile person, but it was disconcerting to awaken and find herself being touched. In all the years in the field in all the times they'd shared tents or slept under the stars in sleeping bags side by side, she'd never once awoken with his hand on her. So yes, disconcerting but also kind of... nice.

Her hands were healing, calluses taking the place of the blisters. It had become no longer excruciating to hold the pickaxe. She wouldn't say she was settling into the routine, but she was starting to adjust.

Next to her, the colonel snuffled and rolled onto his back dragging his hand away from her. Around them were the sounds of the other residents rising for the day. He took a deep breath, scratched his belly and then opened his eyes.

"Morning," he said in sleep roughened voice.

"Good morning," she returned quietly.

He turned his head to look at her. "How're you doing this morning?"

"My hands are feeling much better."

"Let me see."

She held one hand out over his face and he reached up to grab it to move it into focus. "Looking better, too."

"Yes, sir."

"Hmm," he rumbled.

He awoke differently here than he did in a tent off-world. It was slower. More even, less hop-up-and-greet-the-world and more let-the-world-in-gradually.

He closed his eyes again and set her hand down on his chest. She patted him briefly then pulled away. She didn't mind the easy closeness, not really, but it left her feeling a little off kilter on top of the parts they were playing.

The residents, the paireds, were free enough with their affections for their other halves that Sam and the colonel probably seemed very reserved to them, so she was working on the free, easy touches. He was better at it than she was. He'd lightly touch her waist when they were standing and talking to others, or he'd touch her arm to get her attention instead of saying her name. She thought part of the causal touches were a bit of him staking his claim in front of the single men, too. And that she didn't mind one bit.

"I'm meeting with Stellan again tonight after dinner," he mentioned, eyes still closed.

"You are?" It was news to her. After the initial meeting he'd returned with the information that there were at least a dozen paired men who were anxious to get out of the camp. It wasn't many, but a dozen men and their women was a sizeable enough group that perhaps a plan could be formed. It was also a sizeable enough group of unknown people that the colonel was a little wary.

"And two of the others."

"I want to be there."

"Okay."

"Really?"

"Geez, Carter, yeah." He opened one eye and peered at her. "This isn't a boys only club. I'm going to need you." He closed his eye.

It felt good to hear it. Because the escape plan had, up to that point, felt a little like something she was just supposed to go along with. "Thank you, sir."

He just grunted.

"We should get up."

"Yeah," he said and pried open his eyes all the way. "Another day awaits."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Just over a week and three more meetings with Stellan, Avani and the others – meetings that had to become stealthier and stealthier due to the growing size of the group – and they were starting to put a plan together. They were unarmed which was a large strike against them. But the men knew there were shift changes for the guards and the plan started to take shape around breaking out during one of those shift changes. The problem was, they knew they were a distance from the city and the Stargate. It started to look like getting out at all would be the easy part. But staying hidden between the mining camp and the gate would be a whole different ball of wax.

They needed time to coordinate such a break out with so many people. Time was something Jack wasn't too happy to give. Now two weeks into their captivity, his patience was growing thin with forced mining each day, and he knew Sam's was, too.

"Three hundred kilometers," he whispered to her in bed one night as they laid on their sides talking quietly in the low lamp light.

"At least."

"With two dozen people, they'll know we're gone fairly quickly."

"Will they really? It's not like they patrol the living stations."

"Two dozen people is a lot to move during a shift change."

"It is," she conceded.

They fell silent. Which was the only way they could have heard it. The feminine sigh that came from their neighbors' cubicle that was followed by a low, masculine groan.

Sam's eyes went wide. "Are they..."

Jack couldn't help the grin that split his face. "Yeah, I think they are."

Sam cracked a grin. "Well, I guess the bearers have to get pregnant somehow."

But after that, listening to the sounds of the people next door have sex got to be a little uncomfortable. Especially as he laid in bed looking Sam in the eye.

"I'm gonna turn the light out now," he said and rolled over to do just that.

It didn't help much. The quiet sound of skin on skin punctuated with soft grunts flowed through the paper walls just fine.

Part of him wanted to say something to dispel the tension, but all he could come up with were inanities that would probably draw more attention to what was happening than merely staying quiet would. They were both adults, they could handle it.

Except, he was in bed with a woman he was insanely attracted to, and for whom he'd developed feelings far longer ago than he'd admit. And she also happened to be the woman he'd had to establish an easy sort of familiarity with over the course of the last two weeks.

To the sounds of the couple making love he began to picture the way he touched her, softly, benignly. Except a hand on her hip didn't seem benign in his head when it was underscored by the sound of the woman next door spiraling apart in her husband's arms.

A few long moments later came the clear sound of the man finishing. Jack had to hand it to them, they were pretty quiet about the whole thing, but sex was sex and it had an unmistakable sound. A sound he wished he didn't have to listen to lying in bed next to the women he wasn't supposed to want.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

If the first night was bad, the second was worse. The colonel had cut his leg when the pickaxe slipped and she was bandaging him up again after their showers. Then, the couple next door started before their light was even out. There was a soft sigh and a giggle that gave them away.

"Here we go again," he said lightly, but she could hear the strain in his voice.

There was an attraction between them. A strong one. There had been for quite some time. And then, above that, there was the feelings that had developed and that had been brought to light first by the Zatarc incident and then by the way they'd found each other on the ice planet. Oh, nothing had happened, nothing that would jeopardize their positions with the Air Force, but it had been apparent that something might have if they'd been left to their own devices for much longer. They'd been getting closer and closer as time progressed.

So here they were, with tension between them and the couple next door initiating another round of sex. Five minutes ago she'd been ready to go to bed. Now she wasn't so sure.

Next door the lights went out and then, moments later, the distinctive sound of flesh impacting flesh. It made her go all tingly, the thought of what was happening as well as knowing he could hear it too. She wondered how it affected him. She knew, from the night before, that it made him uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure exactly why. And while she  _really_  wanted to know, there was no way in hell she was going to ask. They might have become more familiar with one another but that was way over the line, even the new one they'd drawn.

"We should turn our light out," she whispered to him.

"Why?" he asked in a low voice, but not a whisper. "It's not like it's bothering them.

"Yeah," she said unsurely. "I guess."

But then, seemingly at the same time, they realized that if the light was on they'd have to look at one another while they listened to the erotic soundtrack from next door. "Yeah, we'll turn the light out," he said.

It took them only a moment to situate themselves in the bed, Sam was far more aware of the feeling of his body next to hers than she had been up to that point. The previous night it was almost like an aberration, but tonight being in bed together while the sex was happening so close seemed like a deliberate action.

She wanted to start up some kind of inane conversation. Something to pass the time and help cover the noises that had turned her tingle into a slow burn with the help of the heat of the body next to her. But what could she possibly say?  _Sorry this is happening, sir. I hope it isn't as uncomfortable for you as it is for me._ No, no need to draw more attention to the elephant in the room.

Still, she squeezed her legs together to alleviate the building pressure before she realized he'd be able to feel her every move transferred across the mattress. She softly groaned in embarrassment. Thankfully he didn't say anything. She was afraid he'd try to reassure her. But then he shifted on his side of the bed and realizing that she wasn't alone made the whole situation both worse and better.

When it was over the colonel let out an audible breath then turned onto his side facing her and went to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning his hand was in her hair.


	7. Chapter 6

After listening to two nights of sex, it was like the line that had been drawn down the middle of Jack and Sam's bed had been erased. That first morning, when he'd woken up to see her studying him and with his hand tangled in her hair, there had been some embarrassment. On both their parts. But then, the next several mornings found them touching in one way or another until, finally, he'd woken up wrapped around her. They'd disentangled quickly, but the feeling of her body pressed against him was a singular experience he wasn't going to just shunt aside.

He wanted to cite exhaustion. It had been over three weeks of constant mining without a day of rest. Their evenings were filled alternately with tending to wounds, aches or pains or plotting their escape. A plan which still consisted of little more than: wait for shift change. Their group held steady at two dozen. Stellan indicated that there were single men and likely women who would join the charge, but Jack had drawn the line. The line existed, in part, because he didn't want the single men getting any ideas about any of the paired women – including Sam.

Sam climbed over him to get out of bed when it became clear he wasn't moving yet. In truth, getting out of bed in his thin pajamas would have been embarrassing for them both. So instead he laid there, eyes half closed while she moved around the little room. After the weeks of enforced closeness, she didn't ask him to turn around while she changed, she merely turned her back to him, stepped into her work pants, then pulled her sleeping shift over her head. He didn't mention to her he could see the side of her breast in the moments before she pulled on the alien undershirt and then the work shirt. But, then again, she didn't ask.

When she was done, she turned to him, put her hands on her hips and asked him, "Are you going to get up?"

"I was thinking about not going in today."

She chuffed out a laugh. "And be here when the guards come through? I don't think so. Either you're in the infirmary or in the mines, you know that."

"Well, clock me a good one and then I'll go cry battered husband to the nurses."

"Somehow I don't think a black eye is going to get you out of work."

He sighed theatrically. "Fine." He flipped the blanket and sheet off of him and hoped that she wouldn't notice the effect she had on him. She didn't seem to. Or, if she did, she wisely ignored it.

The easy camaraderie they shared after their time in their current captivity wasn't lost on him. She'd pretty much stopped calling him sir since he started touching her in bed and now, when she said his name, she didn't even trip over it. She still hadn't called him Jack when there was no one around to hear it, though, and the perverse part of him was looking forward to that moment.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night there was an escape meeting planned but Stellan and Avani didn't show. Jack conducted the meeting the same as he always did. One of the men had feigned a conversation with one of the guards at the mouth of the mine to have an opportunity to judge the lay of the land and it was determined that the best bet would be to sneak out of the facility in the open space between the building and the mine. But it still left several hundred flat kilometers they'd have to traverse without being caught. So while it was good information, and while it was helpful it didn't get them a whole lot closer to breaking out.

"C'mon," Jack said after the meeting. "I want to go check on Stellan and Avani."

Sam had been concerned about their absence, too. "Do you think something's wrong?

"Well, something's not right. Stellan wouldn't have just not come."

She tended to agree. The man was serious about getting out even if his wife was unsure. But one thing Sam had learned about Avani was that she'd follow Stellan anywhere, including away from her home.

Jack led them to Stellan and Avani's station. The door was pulled into place despite the early hour. "Do you think they're asleep?" Sam whispered.

"The light's on," he whispered back. Then he raised his voice just enough to be heard inside. "Stellan? You in there?"

There was some rustling and then the door was shifted out of the way. Sam could see Avani lying in the bed, she looked like she'd gone several rounds with a prize fighter.

"Oh my god," she said, "what happened?"

Stellan waved them both into the small room and then slid the door back into place. "Avani was attacked by one of the single men while I was helping the bearers."

"Oh no," Sam breathed. She knew it could happen, but it was still a shock. She pushed past Stellan and went to Avani, sat down on the bed next to her and took her hand. Then men talked quietly behind her as she reached up to stroke Avani's hair.

"Do you need anything?" Sam asked the small woman, who looked even smaller tucked into her bed with her face red and threatening to turn black and blue.

Fresh tears sprang into the woman's eyes. "There is nothing to be done except hope I am not with child."

"Is that..." Sam didn't know how to ask if that were a possibility based on the time of the month. They'd become friends, but Sam wasn't sure their friendship extend that far.

But Avani understood. "Yes," she said. "It is a possibility."

"I'm so sorry. Can't the nurses-"

"While we have the technology to terminate a pregnancy, it will not be done. Not here. Not unless my life is in danger."

"Then we'll just hope." Sam squeezed Avani's hand. "Would you like anything? Some water?"

Avani nodded slowly. "Yes, thank you."

Sam got up from the bed and went to the water bucket. She exchanged a glance with Jack whose face was hardened. Sam retrieved a dipper of water and carried it back to Avani who pushed herself up into a half seated position to accept it.

She drank timidly then said, "Thank you."

"You're sure there's nothing Jack or I can do for you?"

"Just... do not tell anyone?" Avani reached out and grabbed Sam's upper arm. "Please?"

"Of course not," Sam soothed.

Shortly after, Jack and Sam said their goodbyes and went back to their own station. Sam found herself a little shaken. Knowing it could happen and seeing that it had were two totally different things.

"Hey," Jack said when he saw the tremor in her hands. "C'mere." He pulled her into his body then tucked his head into her neck. It wasn't the first time he'd hugged her that way and it was familiar and comforting.

"I can't believe it. They're so careful," she said into his shoulder.

"But he can't be with her all the time."

"We've got to get out of this place."

"I know."

"We should take them with us."

"Back to Earth?"

"Yeah."

He pulled back from her just enough to look at her face, but his arms were still around her in a loose embrace. "Avani doesn't even want to leave here and you want her to leave the  _planet?"_

Sam heaved a sigh. "I don't know. I just... you saw her."

"Yeah, I did. And Stellan is fighting mad about it. If he finds the guy, he's as good as dead."

"Do they know who it was?"

Jack shook his head. "No."

"This is so wrong."

"Yes, it is."

"Avani said she might become pregnant."

He hissed out a breath. "Shit."

"And that they can terminate pregnancies here, but they won't."

"Sonuvabitch."

She tucked herself back up against him. "Yeah. Sonuvabitch."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For the next three day he barely let her out of his sight. It was tough enough to leave her to go into the communal bathrooms, but he knew she was safe in there with all the other women.

In bed he found himself reaching out to her, putting a hand on her to anchor her to him.

"It's been almost a month," she said to him one night as he ran his fingers down her forearm until he could cover her hand with his own.

"Yeah."

"If they were coming for us, they'd have been here already."

"Yeah."

"We've got to get out."

"There are a lot of people to move," he reminded her.

"What if we just... left? Just us?"

It's not that he hadn't thought about it, but knowing how many people wanted to get out made it difficult for him to just turn his back on them. "We could do that," he said slowly. "During the nighttime shift change."

"You don't want to leave them, do you?"

"I want to get home," he countered.

"You want to save them all."

"Well, yeah," he huffed. "Don't you?"

"Yes," she said forlornly. "I do."

But they both knew it would be easier just the two of them, not that it was going to be easy to cross the land unspotted, whether they were two or two dozen. Easier, probably, if they were just two.

"It's 300 klicks on foot. Some of the women are trying to devise a way to carry food and water."

"I know why we haven't left yet," she huffed.

"Do you?"

"Yes!" she said heatedly, if quietly. "Sometimes it just feels like we're never leaving. Like we're just getting comfortable here."

He knew the feeling.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

And then the next day she sprained her ankle. It was enough to put her in the infirmary for two days and then to keep her out of the mines for several more. But both she and Jack knew that it would be at least a couple of weeks before she'd be able to make the trek, possibly a month. Or more.

"I'm so sorry," she said to him one night in bed, when her frustration level was high and tears were threatening.

"It's not your fault."

"We're getting so close."

"We are," he said, "and we aren't. We still don't have a way to carry water. And we still don't know how we're going to get food, let alone how we're going to cross all that space without being seen."

"I just want to go home."

"If only there was a time when all the guards were tied up."

"We need a diversion."

"Which means we need to know who we can trust that is willing to stay behind."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was easier said than done. Stellan wasn't sure who to go to so they tabled the idea for the time being. Jack was frustrated. He knew what they needed, he just couldn't make it happen fast enough. And besides, even if he could, Sam's ankle was barely getting her through the days in the mine. It had been two days since she'd been put back on duty and each night her ankle had been swollen horribly by the time she'd gone to bed. At this rate, it would be more than a month before she'd be healed. If only she could just stay off it. If they were home...

No. He couldn't think that way, because they weren't. And wishful thinking wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"You could go," she said to him one night as he carefully manipulated her ankle into a dressing after her shower.

"Without you? Fuck that, Carter." He hadn't used her surname in a while and it stopped her short.

"No, hear me out."

"I know what you're going to say. Go without you and come back with the cavalry."

"Well, yes."

"No."

He wasn't leaving her to be abandoned and possibly moved to the singles quarters where things were distinctly unsafe for women.

"I go when you can go."

She sighed heavily. "It's going to be a while."

"I know."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night, when they went to bed, he turned her onto her side, her bad ankle on top and spooned up behind her. "Go to sleep, Sam," he said to her when it was clear she was working up the nerve to ask him what was going on.

He fell asleep behind her but she laid awake for some time and listened to a different next door couple have sex. With his body pressed so tightly against hers the entire situation took on a new dimension. She could feel the way he'd breathe and could listen to the sharp exhalations of the man in the next room over.

That couple weren't so quiet about their nocturnal activities and the woman sounded like she was really enjoying whatever it was her partner was doing to her body.

It made Sam feel heavy and achy and when she squirmed in Jack's arms he merely tightened his hold and shushed her in his sleep.

It was torture and then it was over. But not for Sam who laid awake the better portion of the night feeling hot, swollen and ready, the hard body behind her doing nothing to disabuse her body of knowing exactly what it wanted.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The next day in the mine Sam looked exhausted.

"Didn't sleep well last night?"

"No," she said shortly.

Just as he was wondering if it was because he'd pretty much co-opted her personal space she continued.

"The couple next door was... you know."

"Oh." He was distinctly glad he'd slept through that, especially considering how he'd held her. He wasn't sure exactly why he'd chosen that night but if he had to put his money down it would be because she'd tried to get him to leave her behind. It hadn't sat well with him and he hadn't been quite sure how to deal with it.

Couple that with the fact that he was sharing his bed every night with the woman he was... well, it was lot. And he'd just needed a little stress relief. He'd always been a toucher in bed. He was getting the distinct feeling, though, that Sam wasn't.

"About last night," he started.

She blushed. "It was fine. It was... nice. A little... awkward. But nice."

"Yeah, it was."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam spent the evening with Avani. She was doing better but she was quiet. "Do you know if you're..." Sam asked and waved in the direction of Avani's stomach.

"No, not yet. But I am hopeful I am not."

And that was all that was said on the subject. Avani was full of questions about Earth, though, and it made Sam bring her idea back up to Jack that night.

"I think Avani wants to come back to Earth."

"Hammond will kill us if we show up with two aliens looking for refuge."

"They don't have to stay. We could find them somewhere nice to go."

"Like where?"

"I don't know. The Land of Light?"

Jack just harrumphed and she dropped it. But she knew he was thinking about it.

"Let me see your ankle," he said instead.

Dutifully she sat on the edge of the bed and held her left foot out to him. He knelt on the floor and took it between his large hands. It was swollen, tender and sore.

"You're not getting any better."

"How can I when I'm on it every day?"

"You need to try to baby it."

"What do you think I've been doing?"

"There's got to be something more we can do for you."

"For now you could get me some of that Aber powder."

He smiled at her, retrieved the analgesic from their shelves and brought it to her with a dipper of water.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Good news," Jack said as he came into their cubicle after the latest meeting. She'd stayed behind in their station to stay off her ankle – something she'd been trying to do as much as possible.

"Yeah?"

"The women have figured out a way to carry water. They're modifying some work clothes lined with a waxed canvas. It works like a camel pack."

"That's fantastic!"

"We're getting closer."

She looked appraisingly at her ankle. "I still think you should leave me behind."

"We've been over this," he said and sat down on the bed next to her.

"But you didn't seriously consider it."

"I did. And I nixed it. I'm not leaving you here to become prey. How are you going to fight someone off in your current condition?"

"There's no guarantee it's going to happen."

"And there's no guarantee it won't. Sam, we're waiting for you."

And that was all there was to it.


	8. Chapter 7

_Thirty-nine days_ , Sam thought, while contemplating the expanse of his bare back from her spot on the edge of the bed.

He turned to face her and she was momentarily flummoxed by the sight of his chest. He'd bulked up a bit after five and a half weeks of swinging a pickaxe. He smiled at her then pulled his shirt on over his head.

She briefly mourned the loss of the sight of his bare chest then shook herself out of her reverie. Ever since the nightly  _holding_  had begun, she'd found it hard to keep her eyes off him. She'd found it hard to keep her  _thoughts_ off him.

Was thirty-nine days really long enough to have stopped thinking of him as her CO and to have started thinking of him as Jack? She went to bed with him every night. Felt his body against hers. Laid in his embrace and fell asleep.

"It's been thirty-nine days," she said aloud, more to remind herself that he  _wasn't_  her husband and he was, in fact, her CO. Even if he did feel amazing wrapped around her.

"Is that so?"

She didn't answer him. She knew he knew exactly how long they'd been captive in the mining camp. That was what he did. Daily threat and risk assessments and situation reports likely played through his head along with the tally of the number of days they'd been held against their will.

"How's your ankle?" he asked her when it became clear she wasn't expounding on the topic.

"Same."

"Let me see it."

She dutifully held out her left ankle and he crouched in front of her to take it gently in his two large hands. He manipulated it carefully but she still hissed when he turned it the way that hurt.

"Sorry," he said softly and then released her. "I'll wrap it." He pushed up off the floor and retrieved one of the bandages she wore beneath her soft, alien boot/shoe/slipper - she hadn't yet decided exactly what it was. Really it was like a moccasin boot that tied up the front and had a harder sole.

He returned with the wrap and she tried not to notice the way his long fingers wound the bandage around her ankle. "That'll have to do. Can you stand on it?"

"As well as I've been able to since it happened."

He frowned. "Stay here today."

"We've been through this."

"Yeah," he said and grasped at the back of his neck like he was chagrined. "I know."

"I'll be careful," she promised.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That day he pulled something in his back.

"You should let me rub it for you," she offered after their showers.

"I'll be fine."

"You're hurt."

It's not that he didn't want the backrub. But things between them had taken on an undercurrent of tension stronger than they usually dealt with. He knew it was, in large part, his fault. He was the one who had initiated the holding in bed. And after that first awkward night it had been fine.

"I'm fine," he countered.

"Jack, just let me help you," she said exasperatedly.

It was his name coming off her lips that did him in. He stripped off his sleeping shirt and laid face down on the bed.

It was a bit awkward finding a good position for her. She couldn't straddle him because of the angle of her ankle, so she sat next to him on the edge of the bed. She used some of the lotion she'd acquired from the nurses for the calluses on her hands so her hands would slide over his back. Her hands were warm and it was nice, the pressure, on his aching muscles. He hadn't realized how badly he hurt until she'd started her ministrations.

At first it was soothing, but as time wore on, the feeling of her hands on his skin turned sensual and he wasn't sure if it was her or him or something about them both. And then, just as she rubbed deeply from his shoulder blades, down his spine to the dip of his lower back they heard the couple next door.

It was the loud couple. Great. The loud couple who apparently had really excellent sex. Sam's hands faltered when the first feminine moan filtered through the paper walls. Jack tensed. He was sure she was going to stop. But then, she smoothed her hands up his sides. A masculine groan; a groan Jack wanted to make himself but wouldn't allow.

Sam dipped more lotion out of the little pot and spread it over her hands, then over his back. The slick, slippery feel put him in mind of other things. She ran one hand up onto his neck and he shuddered.

"Sorry," she said quietly.

"It's okay." He turned over so he could look at her, just at the moment they heard flesh impact flesh and a soft grunt. Her hands hovered over his chest. Then, there were three, soft sensual moans, only two of which came from next door.

"This is getting ridiculous," she said.

He reached up and snagged one of her hands and interlaced his fingers with hers. She looked down at their hands, seemingly mesmerized. "It's getting damned hard to ignore."

"Yeah."

He was glad it wasn't just him. "You wanna go to bed?"

"I'm not sure that's such a great idea."

"I didn't mean to..."

"Oh."

He didn't. Not really. He just wanted to... what? Hold her? Press his fancy new hard-on into her ass?

She reached out and clicked off the lamp. And that's when they noticed their neighbors hadn't. Not only did they have the soundtrack but they had the shadow show.

He tugged on her hand until she'd climbed over him to get into her spot. She turned immediately onto her side and he hesitated a moment before he snugged himself up against her. They were making a deliberate choice to watch, laying like that. Why couldn't it have been the other, quieter couple, with whom they shared the head-of-the-bed wall?

She made a startled noise when he fitted his hips against hers. Then breathed a soft "oh."

"I'm not gonna apologize," he said into her ear as he watched the bodies next door move against one another. He'd never been a watcher, not that he hadn't watched his fair share of skin-flicks, but it was an undeniable turn on to watch and listen to the couple making love.

"You don't have to," she whispered. "It's too much. I know."

He released her hand and ran his palm down her arm from shoulder to wrist. He gripped her hip when the woman next door let out a low, shuddery groan. He pressed into her when the man next door pressed down into his wife and held there.

And then, as the man resumed thrusting, Jack found he was keeping time by pressing his erection into Sam's soft, welcoming, body.

Sam gasped and shifted into him, slid her legs so he could press more into the center of her. He slipped his hand down onto her lower belly and rubbed deep circles into her. She whimpered.

He propped himself up behind her so he could look down on her. Her eyes were wide open and watching the show, her mouth was parted and she was panting shallowly, and her nipples were hard, pressing against the fabric of her shift. She looked ready to be thoroughly debauched.

He slid his hand down to rest on the soft mound above her sensitive bundle of nerves. He wanted to reach down and hike up her nightgown, slip his fingers against her and find out how wet she was. He wanted to give her some measure of relief, like the relief he found pressing himself against her. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't release, but he could give her that. "Sam, I could..."

"No," she shook her head. She chuckled mirthlessly. "No."

It stung a little. He wanted to touch her, her body wanted to be touched, but she was right. It was crossing a line. And if her brain still said no, it was no.

But many more shows like the one they were watching and he wasn't sure either one of them would have the cool enough head to put on the brakes.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She'd have thought the next morning would be awkward, but it wasn't. As a matter of fact, it seemed to get easier once they'd both recognized, or admitted to, the thing that was happening between them. Oh, it had been happening for a long time, but being in the camp afforded them a freedom they didn't generally have. A freedom they probably shouldn't have taken.

Jack swung the pickaxe and it impacted hard with the stone wall. She wasn't sure how he did that time and time again. The reverberations hurt her hands and tingled unpleasantly all the way up to her shoulders, but he was ruthless. She thought maybe it was his way of dispelling the tension that built up between them. Because when he worked that hard that long he was exhausted by the time they fell into bed.

"I saw Avani this morning," she told him between swings.

"How's she doing?"

"Better now. It's been almost three weeks."

"Is she pregnant?"

"She doesn't think so, but it's hard to tell here."

"Ah," he said but he didn't ask why so she figured he'd worked out the low body fat thing for himself. Or maybe he figured enough time hadn't passed. Or it was all a little too much  _girl-stuff_ for him.

"But if she is pregnant we should... soon." She hoped he heard what she couldn't say in a crowd. She was ten feet from the nearest person who wasn't Jack, but she worried, even with her voice lowered and the loud sounds of mining.

"Sam, we can't go until your ankle is healed, whether she is or isn't."

"It could be another month!"

"Then it'll be a month. It'll give us time to finish the camel packs and figure out the food situation."

She sighed heavily. "I'm tired."

"I am, too."

"And the longer we wait the more tired we get."

"Sam, you run twenty feet right now and we'll leave tonight."

She considered it, but she knew it would end badly. "Point made."

"I want to get out of here, too." He said gently.

"I know."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night Stellan and Avani came to their cubicle. "We have trouble," Stellan said, sparing no time for pleasantries.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Half of the pairs have decided to stay."

"What? Why?" Sam asked.

"They have decided it is not worth the risk."

"And the others are similarly concerned," Avani said.

"Well, it is a risk," Jack said.

"Too big, some believe."

"Everyone needs to be one hundred percent committed," Jack said forcefully, "or this isn't going to work."

"We are committed," Stellan said and reached for Avani's hand.

Jack studied the two of them. Since the rape, Avani had seemed more interested in leaving, especially with asking Sam questions about Earth. Getting out was one thing, something they all wanted. But to leave their home planet, too.

"You want to come to Earth?" Jack asked.

"Avani wants to leave this place. And there is nothing for us in the city."

"Surely there are people you know still there?" Sam asked.

"It has been ten years," he reminded her, "and my family was gone before I was taken. I have no one in the city and it would be too easy for someone to realize I belong here."

"Even if we take you back with us, you can't stay," Jack warned them. "We'd have to find another planet for you."

"Anywhere is better than here," Avani said quietly, cementing Jack's idea that her comfort with the place had evaporated with her attack.

"But the others?"

"The others will be happy in the city," Stellan said. "They were all born here. No one will know them there. It is a big place, they can easily get lost amongst the other residents."

"They can, but you can't," Jack surmised. "Because the city officials are in on it. They're the ones who decides who comes here, aren't they?"

"I do not know for sure," Stellan said, "but many believe that to be true."

"How did we miss this?" Sam asked Jack. "We were here for weeks before the negotiations began.

"They showed us what they wanted us to see. They had naquadah and we wanted it. We didn't ask them if there was a slave caste that did the mining."

"We should have."

"Well, that ship's pretty much sailed, Carter," he said tersely.

She shot him a look at his tone, but his use of her last name apparently put her in mind of their ranks and she, wisely considering his mood, didn't say anything.

"We can do this, just the four of us," Jack said, finally voicing aloud what he and Sam had been bandying about.

"And what of the others?" Avani asked.

"If their minds aren't made up, we can't take the chance."

"Then we will go, just the four of us," Stellan said.

"Just the four of us," Jack echoed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam found herself calmed by the idea that the escape party had just dwindled to four. As she laid in bed with Jack that night she thought over the conversation with Stellan and Avani.

"Are we going to tell the others we're leaving them behind?" Sam asked.

"The wafflers?" he asked her. When she nodded he said, "No."

"That feels wrong."

"We're doing what we have to do to get out."

"And we're leaving behind a bunch of people who knew what the plan was."

"Not the whole plan."

"They might say something to the wrong person. It feels like a lot of loose ends."

"Yes, it does," he agreed. "But there's not much we can do about that. We can't force them to leave."

"I wonder if the overseers will care about two pairs taking off."

"The way they treat the bearers, my guess is every body is important enough to care about."

"I can't imagine raising a baby here."

"Me either."

"I hate to say I feel better about this, but I do."

He rolled onto his side to face her and he ran a hand through her hair. "I do, too."

She reached up and pulled his hand out of her hair and threaded their fingers together. "You're not sorry it's not just us?"

"It would be easier, if it was just us. But I don't want to leave Stellan and Avani any more than you do. Especially not after what happened."

"I'm nervous."

"It's going to be fine. Tactically, it's easier to move four than it is two dozen."

"But... safety in numbers, right."

"Not always."

She looked down at their hands. "A month."

"About. When you're ready, we'll go."

"I'm ready now."

He looked down at their hands, too, maybe a little wistfully. "I'm not. And you're not either."

It was true, she wasn't. But she was afraid it was for more than one reason.


	9. Chapter 8

On the fiftieth day Sam found herself striking the walls of the mine with more force than usual. Her patience with their situation had worn out. Her ankle wasn't better but she felt like she was making progress. She felt like, at the rate she was healing, another three, possibly even two weeks would be enough. She wanted to rush it, but she didn't. She didn't want to jeopardize their escape plans by being the weak link.

But still, it had been fifty days of mining without a break. Her entire body hurt. There was no length of hot shower that could soothe her aching muscles. Her hands were rough and callused, her feet hurt from the lack of support in the moccasin boots. She was sick and tired of Trinigoth and no amount knowing she was leaving eventually would pull her out of her funk.

"What did that wall do to you?" Jack asked her when she gave it a hard enough whack that she grunted.

"I hate this place."

"Take it easy, Sam. No one's going to notice if your mining is a little... soft."

"No. This  _feels_ good," she said giving the wall another hard whack.

"It's not going to feel good later."

"I already hurt everywhere. How much worse can I feel?"

"Do you really want to test that out?"

"I want out of here."

"Why don't you go out to the water?"

"I don't mean out of the mine, I mean out of the camp."

"What's gotten into you today?"

"I'm in a bad mood," she admitted.

"I can tell."

He wisely didn't say more when she shot him a glare. 

A few hours later, when the day ended and they sat down to dinner she finally spoke to him again. "Sorry about today."

He took a bite of his bread then offered the rest to her. She took it as his acceptance of her apology. Not that it was rare for him to push food her way. It wasn't rare for any of the men to push food towards their women, she'd noticed.

The men were underfed for the amount of work they were doing, but not near to the extreme the women were. She estimated that she'd lost a good ten to fifteen pounds despite the added muscle she'd put on. She looked svelter than she had even as a teenager.

"You're allowed to have a bad day, you know."

It was nice of him to say, but she didn't mean to take it out on him. "Doesn't mean you should bear the brunt of it."

He grunted. "My shoulders are broad. I can handle it."

She looked over at him. His shoulders were, indeed, broad. "Thank you," she said simply.

He scooped some green vegetable onto her plate and gave her a smile.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night, much as he suspected she would be, she was more sore than usual. He didn't say he told her so, it wouldn't have gone over well. Instead, he brought her a packet of the Aber powder and then massaged her lotion into her hands.

She moaned her approval of his ministrations and it went straight to his groin. Ever since the night they'd watched the couple have sex it seemed like every single thing she did turned him on. A soft smile in the morning? A flash of her breast as she got dressed? A fit of temper that fired her eyes? A heady moan as he massaged her hand... all of it.

It didn't help that since that night their neighbors had been quiet. If only he'd had the excuse of the erotic shows he might have been able to deal with it better. But the truth was, it was just her. Everything about her.

"I'm so tired," she said as he kneaded the soft fleshy part at the base of her right thumb.

"Why don’t you get into bed?"

"Because I don't want you to stop that."

He chuckled lowly. "What if I told you you could liedown and I wouldn't stop."

She didn't even answer him, she just slid between the sheets and offered him her left hand. "You're really good at this."

"I know." His hands were strong, he'd always gotten rave reviews when it came to massages. "Want me to do your back?"

It was a self serving request. He knew, if she wanted him to, she'd have to take off her sleeping shift. It would leave her topless, but the alien underwear were more like boxer shorts and would keep her modestly covered. If she went for it.

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Wouldn't have offered if I did."

"I really did overdo it today." She sat up, turned her back to him and pulled her sleeping shift off over her head and clutched it to her chest covering her breasts. Her back was long and smooth and he was looking forward to getting his hands on it. "I'm not sure I can lay down on my stomach. It would turn my ankle. Can you do it like this?"

He put his hands on her shoulders and started kneading the tight muscles there. "You should have let me do this sooner," he said when he felt the knots.

"You didn’t offer."

"You could have asked."

She didn't say anything and he guessed she wouldn't have.

For long, quiet moments, he worked her shoulders and her neck until he could feel the tension start to drain away. 

He dipped his fingers into the lotion pot and spread the silky substance over his hands.  At the first long press of his thumbs from the base of her spine up to her shoulders  she  gave a heady groan.  He was entranced by the way his hands spanned from her spine to the curve of her ribs. She was all bone and smooth muscle, she was so much smaller than she looked dressed in bulky BDUs or mining clothes.

"You've lost weight," he mentioned.

"So have you," her voice was loose from his ministrations.

"I hadn't really noticed."

"We'll put it back on when we get home."

He pressed into her back and it forced her to lean forward. She stayed that way while he worked his hands over the muscles in her back. He focused on her lower back where her skin met the shorts she was wearing. She groaned low again when he hit a particularly sensitive spot.

"Hurts good or hurts bad?"

"Hurts good," she moaned.

He continued until the groans turn into pleasurable sounds and then noticed she was beginning to fall asleep. Her hands had fallen into her lap and left her breasts bare, he noticed when he leaned up close to her ear. "Why don't you lie down now?"

She was so nearly asleep she just nodded and lay down on her side, her shift still clutched in her hands. He smiled at her though she couldn't see with her heavy-lidded eyes. He pulled the sheet and the blanket up over her and bid her goodnight.

When he slid into the bed behind her he put his big hand on the warm, bare skin of her belly and fell right to sleep.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam awoke the next morning to find herself dressed in only the alien shorts-like underwear with Jack's forearm between her breasts and his hand gripping her shoulder. Part of her was embarrassed, the rest of her flared with heat to be in such a possessive hold. They'd awoken similarly once before, but she'd been dressed in her shift and it hadn't felt quite so elemental. The only thing she was going to miss about the mining camp was the easy familiarity, the closeness, the decidedly regulation-breaking relationship she'd found herself in with her commanding officer. 

She felt Jack come awake behind her. He squeezed her shoulder gently then dragged his hand down between breasts to free his arm. "Morning," he mumbled.

"Yes, it is."

He squeezed her waist and then rolled away from her. She turned onto her back and looked at him. He was blinking blearily. She had the sudden urge to kiss him. She sat up holding the sheet to her chest and it dragged the warm blanket off of him. He frowned adorably.

"Thank you for last night," she said.

"You fell asleep," he accused lightly.

"I was very relaxed."

"I'm losing my touch."

"I wouldn't say that." 

He grinned at her. "Feeling any better?"

"I think so."

"How's the ankle."

She rolled it. "Tender, but okay for now."

"Good."

He rolled out of bed and went to the dresser. He tossed her a set of work clothes then set about getting dressed himself. She watched him. Watched him strip off his sleep shirt then his sleep pants leaving him in nothing but shorts. She  reveled in the muscular display. He was lean and long. He was beautiful from his striking silver hair down to his feet. She wanted to tell him how handsome he was, but it felt like something she shouldn't say, despite clear changes in their relationship. Because the truth was, they were going home. Where mornings of watching him dress for his day would be things of memory.

He turned to her and found her watching him. He raised an eyebrow at her that Teal'c would have been proud of. "What?"

"We'll be going home soon."

"Yeah."

"Just... saying it out loud."

His eyes went soft, like he understood. "Yeah."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack was frustrated. Between the frustration of captivity and the sexual frustration, he had reached his wit's end. He'd woken up with her half naked in his arms. Sure, he'd played it cool, but the feeling of the soft, warm flesh of her breasts against his forearm had stayed with him since morning.

He took his frustrations out on the wall. Sam gave him a few sidelong glances and he knew she was wondering if it was going to be her turn to rub him down again. As much as he wanted that, he wanted the pain. It gave him something to concentrate on besides the soft, silkiness of her skin and wondering what her nipples would feel like in the palms of his hands.

Since the night he'd asked to touch her, and the night she'd been the cooler prevailing head, all it had taken was one look from her to get his blood pumping. The proximity was too much. He didn't know how much more he could take. He didn't know how much longer he could see her not as a good thing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam glided her hands over Jack's bare back, rubbing the lotion into his skin and soothing his aching muscles. These days it seemed to be one or the other of them pushing themselves at a punishing rate. She knew why she did it, but all along Jack had seemed like the man with the plan. Get her well, then get the hell out. He'd seemed almost zen about the whole thing.

Then the tension between them had been ramped up and he seemed to have thinly held control over his baser emotions the more time passed.  It was okay. She understood. She didn't let his sometimes surly attitude bother her. Probably because she was having her fair share of surly moments, too and he took those with good humor.

She continued his massage working her hands up to his shoulders and then his arms. He grunted when she hit a sore spot. She murmured an  apology and continued on.

"You worked hard today."

"You're right, it feels good."

"At the time."

He  huffedbut she saw the corner of a smile on his face.

"Anything in particular on your mind?"

"No," he said quickly and decisively.

That sounded like anything but no.  She just ran her fingertips over him in a way she knew would make him shiver.

"Sam," he said warningly and she realized that perhaps messing with him was mean and unfair. Not that she'd really been messing with him on purpose, she just liked the way he responded to her touch.

"Sorry."

He sighed. "Me too."

And they'd have been fine after that. They really would have. Except the loud couple started up just as Sam had put the lid back on the lotion.

Jack groaned. "Can't they give it a rest?"

"It's not like there's a lot to do here," Sam pointed out.

So they got ready for bed and turned out the light. Jack turned resolutely onto his back and refused to watch the show. She, on the other hand, had her eyes glued to the shadowy forms and the way the y  sensuously moved. She noticed, for the first time, there was a fair amount of foreplay involved in their encounter. Before, she'd been mostly focused on the sounds, but she could see the way the man ran his hands over the woman's body and it made her think of the feel of Jack's hands big, warm hands on her back, on her sides, and what they might feel like other places.

It turned her on. The fantasy of Jack coupled with the sex next door, the sounds and the images... it was too much on top of too much for too long.

Jack's breathing was deep and even. She contemplated what to do for long moments while she listened to his breath. She looked at him and saw his eyes closed in the dim light that filtered through the paper walls. He appeared to have gone right to sleep. Well, he 'd  had an intense day.

Throwing caution to the wind and listening to a part of her deep inside, s he hiked her nightshirt up around her waist.She'd never done anything like this while in bed with someone else. It felt sweet and illicit and it made a rush of wetness drench her folds. She  sneaked her hand in to her shorts.

"I'm not asleep," he broke the silence of their cubicle with a whisper.

She snatched her hand back like she was made of fire and whimpered in frustration. 

He let her stew in her embarrassment for a few moments then asked, "Would you really have... with me right here?"

"Jack," she sighed, but then she didn't know what to say. Yes, she had fully intended to, with him right there next to her.

He turned onto his side and reached for her in the  near  dark. He wound up with a handful of her side. Her muscles jumped under his touch. She was so keyed up that her body didn't know he wasn't the promise of release. Unerringly his hand trailed up her side, over her collarbone, along her neck, and up to cup her Jaw.  Her eyes slipped closed.

Her breath started to come faster. He was going to kiss her. Finally. She felt him shift closer to her then felt his breath on her lips.  Next came the gentle bump of his nose against hers. He toyed with her, his breath hot on her skin and his nose brushing against hers from one angle then another. She supposed he was giving her time to back away. It was time she didn’t need.

Finally, he tilted his head and his lower lip brushed her upper, then with a full  tilt  of his head he captured her lips with his own. He wasn’t too gentle and not at all apologetic as he kissed her. His kiss was strong and able and she surged up toward him, propping herself up on her elbows so she could push her mouth against his, giving as good as she got.

For long moments he worked his lips over hers until she got impatient and opened her mouth under his and he immediately accepted her invitation by touching the tip of her tongue with his own. She flooded with warmth and wetness at the feel ing  of the strong muscle tangling with her own. His hand slid from her jaw to the back of her head and he used his large palm to manipulate her to tip first one way then the other as he made love to her mouth in slow, languorous motions.

He was in no hurry. He kissed her deeply over and over again until she had to tear her mouth from his to take a full, deep breath. “Whoa,” she said softly. He was really good at that. He chuckled lowly and pulled his hand out of her hair to trail down her neck . He petted her softly while she panted, he touched all the skin that was available to him then he started over again. She was melting in his hands. Whatever he wanted, he could have.

“Sam?” he questioned softly.

She willed her eyes open and found his were deep and intense.  “What?”

“Do you want to do this?”

She could have asked him what he meant, she could have played naïve, but what was the point? She wanted him, he wanted her, it had been that way for far longer than they’d been on the planet subjected to one erotic showing after another. She’d reached saturation. “Yes,” she said. She  _really _ wanted to do this.

“We’ll deal with home when we get there?”

She knew what he was asking her. Did they do this despite knowing that when they got home everything would change one way or the other ?  Either they’d give each other up or they’d give up SG-1 as they knew it. But they didn’t have to talk about it until later. Later things would be clearer and less lust-clouded. “Yes.”

He trailed the backs of his fingers over one peaked breast. “You’re sure?”

“God, Jack,” she moaned breathlessly, waiting to find out where his hand would go next, “yes.”

He turned his hand and cupped her breast. He was scorching hot even with her shift between them.

He leaned in for another kiss. Then he pulled back just enough to speak against her lips. “Take this thing off,” and he tugged at her shift. “Take it all off, I want you naked  under  me.”

His words made her go all taut and tingly. Usually, she led in bed, but she was a slave to the pleasure he’d already given her with his mouth on hers alone.

He helped her by grabbing the shift at a point near her hips and yanking it up, dragging the hem from its place around her ankles up over her thighs. She had to lift herself off the bed to maneuver the shift over her head. Once she did, once her upper body was bare to him, he surged towards her.  His mouth landed on the cords of her neck, he palmed one heavy breast with one hand and with the other he was already pushing at the waist band  of her  shorts.  She whimpered when his fingertips brushed over her bare hip.

Moments later she was kicking off her shorts and she was gloriously naked in bed with him. It felt surreal, especially with the awestruck way he was looking at her, as if he couldn't believe it was happening either.  From his placed hovering above her, dressed in his alien sleepwear, he gazed down her body from her eyes to throbbing, needy part of her, then back to her eyes. The look on his face made her go liquid.

His eyes flicked between her and the lamp a few times and she could see him weighing the options.

She wanted to see him naked in full light, too, but at the same time... "Leave it off," she whispered. "I don't want to be watched."

"Okay," he said and ducked his head down for another kiss. He laid her back against the pillows with a hand behind her head and kissed her deeply. She could feel the pull of his kiss all the way down into her belly where it drew up tight the string that connected all the pleasurable parts of herself together.

His free hand traveled down her body, over her breast – his thumb caressing her nipple; down her side  – his fingers playing over her ribs ;  to her hip where he grasped her particularly hard when she sucked his tongue into her mouth when she was tired of being toyed with. His hand ghosted across her belly and then down  to the fleshy part of her right above her needy bundle of nerves. He tapped out some secret code against her skin  and scratched his fingernails  through the  wiry hair he encountered.

She resisted the urge to lift her hips and force his fingers downwards. Her desire to learn him the way he was learning her was too strong, so she let him have his play.  He teased her, petted her gently, ran his fingertips over the soft petals of flesh that covered her intimately. She whimpered with readiness for him to part her folds and stroke her wet flesh. She shifted and spread her legs, willing him to touch her. She moaned his name long and low, tripping over the J when hetapped the apex of her sex  once then once more.

He pressed himself flush against her and she could feel his long, hard erection against her hip.  She reached up to stroke him from shoulder to the fingertips that were toying with her sex. She pressed him into her until he parted her folds. The feeling of his fingertips encountering her wet, sensitive clit made her shudder and groan.

He stroked down until he encountered her opening. She was dripping and ready for him. He slipped one long finger inside her and captured her mouth for another slow, sensual kiss, countering the rhythm of his finger with his tongue.

"More," she said into his mouth. "More," she requested needily again.

He shifted away from her mouth to take her breast into his mouth. He flicked her hard nipple with the tip of his tongue then bit down gently as he slid another finger inside her.

With the backs of her knuckles she rubbed down the length of hardness he had pressed into her. He bit into her harder and growled around her flesh. She turned her hand and snagged the waistband of his pants. "Off," she said and pushed. She wanted to feel his silky hard skin against her heated flesh.

He laved her abused nipple one more time for good measure and then pushed himself up and off the bed, pulling his fingers out of her as he moved. She groaned at the sensation of his fingertips dragging against the most sensitive spot inside her.

She turned her head to watch him disrobe. First he pulled his shirt over his head. Even though she was no stranger to the sight of his bare chest, all that skin and knowing it was his body she was looking at made her heart speed up. She grew slicker, felt her readiness slip against her skin. The he tucked his fingers into the waistband of his pants. He drew them down his legs along with his underwear and exposed himself to her. He was hard and heavy, his erection standing out from his body in a way that made her want to reach for him. She did reach for him, but it was a hand beckoning him back into the bed.

He took her hand then put first one knee then the other onto the bed. He knelt there next to her letting her look her fill in the low light filtering into their cubicle. Next door the couple still made love and the wet sounds of their bodies colliding added an undercurrent to her current visual that enhanced her readiness.

"Please," she said and licked her lips. She didn't know what she was asking him for beyond more of his body near hers. She wanted him inside her. She wanted his tongue in her mouth, his fingers on her breast, that hard, ready cock stroking inside her. But she didn't know how to ask, exactly, for him to slide inside her so instead she bent one leg at the knee and opened herself fully. She reached for her own opening, willing to settle momentarily for the feel of her fingers if she got to look at him while she pushed into herself.

He let her get as far as her clit then covered her fingers with his own. He learned the way she worked tight circles around her bundle of nerves then knocked her hand aside and took over. She felt the surge of arousal deep in her belly, felt the way he drove her from turned on to on the edge. Felt the way he was intent to push her over that edge.

"No," she said and reached for his hard cock. She wrapped her fingers around the hot flesh. He was just as hard and silky as she'd imagined, but it was better because it was actually him, not her thoughts of him – thoughts she'd had a lot of time with over the years, even before she realized she loved him. She stroked him from base to tip and encountered a bead of wetness she slicked over the tip of his erection. 

He hissed lowly and thrust into her hand.  "God, Sam."

She felt powerful when she heard the way he said her name. "I want you inside me."

His eyes grew darker at the request. He shifted her on the bed until he was knelt between her legs. With his thumbs he parted her folds and looked down at her. She knew he must be able to see her wetness even in the low light. She felt warm and sloppy and was already anticipating what that first stroke inside her would feel like.

He ran one thumb from clit to entrance then lifted his hand to his mouth. He sucked the coated digit into his mouth and then looked at her speculatively. Just like with the lamp, she could see him weighing his options. She wanted him to go down on her just as badly as he seemed to want to – she'd had fantasies about just that thing since the first time he'd smirked at her. But she was anxious to have him inside her and she could tell that his desire for the same was the only thing holding him back.

"Next time," she told him even though they both knew this was likely to be a one-time event. At least, for the time being. Next time could be years away. At that thought part of her wanted to let him do  it . But she could see between her legs the way his cock was weeping with readiness.

"You sure?" he asked her, apparently ever the gentleman.

She shook her head and said again, "I want you inside me."

He could have dallied. He didn't. He shifted closer to her and then, in one long, smooth motion he slid inside her. She felt the head of his cock  press  her open. It had been a long while since she'd had sex and while she'd easily taken his finger, all of him forced her muscles to soften to accommodate his size. He wasn't uncomfortably large, but she could feel him from her opening to deep inside her, the pressure causing a delicious sensation she felt all the way into her nipples.

She lifted her hands to her breasts and squeezed to alleviate the tingle he'd spread through her body. He put his hand on her lower belly and pressed. Then, he stroked out, then back in so slowly she thought she was going to go mad. He pulled back out and thrust back in the same manner until she lifted her hips demanding more. He answered her with a hard thrust that made her grunt and tighten her inner muscles around him.

"Do that again," he said lowly, darkly.

She sqeezed his cock once more, slowly.

"Again."

She obliged him.

He answered her by taking her harder. With his free hand he gripped her hip to keep from moving her up the bed. She appreciated the thought because she wasn't releasing her breasts to press one hand against the wall at the head of the bed. Not unless she had to. But the sensations he was creating within her were too much not to tend to.

He moved the hand on her belly down until he could thumb her clit. She felt the familiar tingle begin to coil in her belly and she knew she wasn't going to be able to wait him out. It was too good, feeling him inside her and he seemed intent on making her come.

She didn't have any reason to disabuse him of that idea. But she wanted him closer. She released one breast and reached up to him. She wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and  coaxed  him down. He had to take his hands off her and brace his forearms on the bed next to her head and shift his lower body to accommodate the new position. She hooked her thighs over his hips just as he captured her lips in another kiss.

They kissed open mouthed and dueling tongues for long moments, stealing each other's breath. He continued to pound into her as she'd requested. She could already feel how she was going to be the delicious kind of tender the next day.

 He pulled back from her mouth. "I want to feel you come."

She reached back between  the m without a word and used her fingers to circle her clit. It didn't take long to build up to that place where she was teetering on the edge of pleasure. She was so close, all it would take was one change in stimulation. She shifted her hips against him but it wasn't enough. Then, he licked her bottom lip. She was incredulous as she felt herself shatter apart around him. He didn't try to thrust through her orgasm. He just dropped one hand and slipped it between the bed and her lower back and held her against him as she came. He grunted as she clenched around him.

She keened lowly at the feeling of her inner walls gripping his flesh. When her orgasm faded to flutters he resumed his thrusting. He found a rhythm that worked for him and drove into her at a relentless pace. She used one hand to grip his ass and the other she wrapped under his arm up over his shoulder to anchor her to him. Soon he was punctuating each thrust with, "Fuck... Sam... Fuck... Sam... Fuck," and she knew he was close. She moved her hand from his ass to the back of his head and threaded her fingers through his hair. She directed his mouth back to hers and nipped at his lips. He exhaled harshly into her mouth. And then, with a loud groan he emptied himself into her, his hips bucking against hers, his rhythm lost to his pleasure.

When his shudders stopped he dropped a kiss to her lips then rolled away from her to collapse onto his back. He sighed. "Jesus Christ."

She reached for his hand and they tangled their fingers together. "Good Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ what did we just do?"

"The good one," he said without hesitation.

"Yeah."

There was a lot to think about, plenty to worry about, but for the moment she'd just concentrate on the feeling of his fingers wrapped around hers and the way her hips ached from being pressed around him.  The worry could wait until tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 9

Sam came awake slowly. She stretched in Jack's arms and felt the way her skin slid warmly against his. Against her backside she could feel him, half hard. And between her legs she felt tender and moist. It had been years since she'd awoken in the arms of a man after a night of incredible sex, but that was exactly what she was doing that morning.

And the sex had been incredible. He'd made her body sing in the ways she'd always suspected he could. She felt satiated and had a sense of calm she'd lost during their time in the camp and she could only explain it by the feelings he'd stirred up within her.

She knew they shouldn't have done it. She knew they'd crossed a line that was never meant to be crossed. But, she couldn't find it inside herself to care. It was a surprising feeling, really. To have screwed the regs so royally in the midst of an otherwise spotless career should have terrified her. But it didn't. What happened between them wasn't likely to become a regular occurrence. Oh, they hadn't talked about it, but they both knew that life would have to go back to normal once they got home. And certain things, well, they'd just be left out of a mission report.

It wasn't that she didn't want him. She did. On a permanent basis. But their work, what they did, it was important. Too important to give up. Even if sometimes the look in his eyes was enough to make her want to give up everything that wasn't him, she had responsibilities. So did he. She loved him for the way held himself to such a high standard, and the way he held her to that standard too. So she knew sex wasn't something that was going to change their relationship once they got home, even if she did know what his face looked like when he came. They'd go back to who they were and their time in the camp would be both a memory of something bad and a memory of the release of the pressure valve that had been their last few months. They'd go back and they'd be who the were expected to be.

She should feel some remorse, she really thought, for being so willing to keep such a secret.

But she didn't.

She didn't at all.

She turned over in Jack's arms, flattened her breasts against his chest and arched against him until he woke.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They worked together in a secluded little alcove that was rich with naquadah. Jack took long swings with his pickaxe, but the frenzied nature his mining had taken on had been abated by the physical release he'd found with Sam. He found himself watching her more than usual, in part to watch the way her body moved while she worked and to liken it back to the way she moved when she was under him, but also to see if he could detect any regret or remorse. So far, if her smiles and equally languid mining were anything to go by, she was as content with their decision as he was.

That morning he'd awoken with her naked in his arms. It had taken everything he had to release her to get dressed rather than roll her underneath him for another go. But one thing they didn't have in the mornings was a lot of time, so instead he contented himself to watch her nude body stretch and bend as she got dressed for their day. She appeared completely unselfconscious and he liked that he never would have guessed that about her.

She pulled him back into the present. "I've been thinking about leaving," she said quietly between the rings of their pickaxes striking the wall of the mine.

"Me too," he said though he'd backburnered leaving for the more immediate thoughts of her.

"And I think we're getting closer. Three weeks, at most."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's time we got back together with Stellan and cemented a plan."

"That's what I was thinking. Food is going to be a problem."

"Water we have handled."

"If we can get our hands on the prototype the women built."

"Stellan and Avani have it."

"Oh," she said surprised, "problem solved." He was reminded of the meeting she missed while she was staying off her ankle.

"It's what I do," he said with a quick grin. He sobered quickly, though. "You're sure your ankle is getting better?"

"Yes," she said.

He searched her eyes for any possibility she was rushing herself but he detected nothing but honesty. He flashed back to the way she'd wrapped her thighs around his hips and how her heels had dug into his ass and he figured, if there had been pain, he'd have known about it then.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

If the city was, indeed, three hundred kilometers from the camp, it would take them nearly forty hours of walking to reach it.

Avani promised to make three more of the water pouches over the course of the next couple of weeks. It wouldn't be a lot of water, but it would have to be enough.

"What are we going to do about food?" Sam wanted to know.

Stellan pulled out a stack of gauze and handed it to Jack. "You should wrap your breakfast, every other day. The meal dries into a bar." Stellan reached over to his shelving unit and produced a square of the oatmeal-like substance that had, indeed dried into a bar and didn't look too worse for the wear besides being relatively unappetizing.

"They hardly feed her enough as it is," Jack protested, though.

"It is true," Avani said softly, "but it is what must be done."

The next morning Sam feigned needing the bathroom soon after she received her breakfast. She picked it up as if to carry it away with her but when she was away from the eyes of the other residents at the table, she carefully wrapped the square in the gauze Stellan had provided. When she made it back to the table, Jack pushed half his breakfast towards her and silenced her with a look. She thanked him and ate the offered food, just as bland as it had been every morning, but at least warm and pliable. She hated to think what the stuff would taste like dried.

In the mines Sam talked quietly to Jack about their plans to leave. "What about a distraction?"

"I think we're going to have to do without one."

"Can we?"

"We'll slip out during shift change. With just four of us, it should be easy enough."

"I'm nervous," she admitted. "If they catch us..."

"We haven't seen anyone punished here. For anything. It's like everyone just does what they're supposed to. "

"Though even the rapists go unpunished," she spit.

"Maybe only when they're unknown. And it's not like Avani told anyone it happened."

Sam shrugged. It didn't matter if he was right. She didn't like the situation one bit, but nothing would be changed by harping on it.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack watched as Sam dressed for bed. She gingerly put a little weight on her bad ankle and he smiled when she didn't hiss with pain. They were getting closer. She said three weeks, he believed her. It didn't seem like soon enough while at the same time it seemed inordinately soon, considering he didn't really have a clear idea of how they were going to pull it off.

Dressed in her shift, Sam limped to the bed and sat down on the edge by him where he was lying down. "What's on your mind?"

"Getting out." He trailed a finger from her shoulder down to her wrist. "You." What happened between them wasn't something he could get used to doing with her. Not until they had some idea of what it meant for them. He had the sinking suspicion that it was an aberration brought on by circumstance. But it didn't stop him from thinking about what it felt like to slide inside her.

She gave him a soft, warm smile. She didn't need to ask what he was thinking about, he was sure it showed in his eyes.

It shouldn't have happened, but that didn't mean he had any remorse. He should have been able to last longer than he had. And had he not been responsible for her, had they not had to share a bed, had they not had to listen to and if they couldn't have seen the other couples having sex, maybe he'd have been able to resist. Maybe he'd have been the CO she deserved. But there was no denying what was between them, especially not in the last few months before the mining camp. Maybe he'd have been stronger if it wasn't so clear that she wasn't all that interested in being strong anymore either.

"We don't need to talk about it," she said quietly and he was once again taken aback by how well she could read him.

"Yeah, we do," he said though he had no intention of having the conversation with her at that moment.

"I know it shouldn't have happened," she said and ghosted a hand across his chest, "but it did. It doesn't have to happen again."

He knew she was offering him an out, she was offering a way to back away slowly, to keep from turning what happened between them into something that could hurt them. But she was wrong. It was going to happen again. He just wasn't sure when or how, but if he'd learned anything at all from that night with her it was that it was definitely not a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

There were many things he could have said to her. Probably many things he should have said. Instead, he captured her fingers in his and tugged with one hand, and turned the light off with the other. Of all the things he could have said, the only thing he could manage was, "Come to bed."


	11. Chapter 10

"If we're going to do this without a diversion," Jack said to Stellan, Avani and Sam, "then we need to be absolutely sure what happens during shift change."

So, Jack and Stellan spent several evenings surreptitiously watching how, exactly, the guards executed their shift change. Jack noticed that there was a fair amount of fraternization that happened as the guards changed posts. And, in the area between the building and the mine, on two out of three nights of watching, the guards changed inside the building, leaving the open space clear and passable. It was obvious they weren't anticipating a break out. Or that, even if they were, they'd become complacent.

"We'll have to try," Jack told them, "and if it's a night where the change happens outside then we'll have to postpone."

"But if the change happens inside, how are we going to get past them to get into the clearing before the mines?" Sam wanted to know.

"There is another door," Stellan said. "It exits the building at the side, we would have to make our way around the building to the open space between the building and the mine."

"There are guards there as well," Avani pointed out.

"But they'll be changing shifts too," Sam said.

"So we need to scout that."

"That will not be so easy," Stellan said. "There is nowhere to hide."

"Except in one of the rooms off that hallway."

"Those are the bearers quarters," Stellan said with a shake of his head. "You will not be allowed in."

"Maybe not," Jack said, "but you or Avani would be. You'll have to orchestrate a reason to be there during shift change and observe how the change happens."

"I can do that," Avani said.

Jack was pleased to hear the strength in the woman's voice. Since she'd discovered she was not pregnant he'd seen her draw herself up. She walked with a strength she hadn't before the attack. "Good," he said with a smile that made her blush under his praise.

"It may take some time," she warned. "I can go to their quarters but it might be many nights before I'm able to observe the shift change."

"We can't go until we know. It doesn't matter if it's one night or a hundred," Sam assured her. "Besides, I'm not completely healed yet. It could be another two or three weeks."

"If we can, then, we'll leave from the side of the building and work our way around to the clearing between the building and the mine. From there, we should be able to cross the distance without being seen and we can hide in the shadows at the base of the mountain."

Sam picked up his thread. "We should be able to follow the base of the mountain far enough that when we cross the plain to the city we'll be unnoticed."

"Do you not think they will be looking for us?" Avani asked.

"We'll have to assume they will be and keep a low profile," Jack said, though he'd admit to himself that he wasn't sure whether they'd mount an all out search for four people or not. Especially not when two of those people were new... recruits.

"If we follow the mountain far enough..." Sam started.

Stellan broke in, "That will be the easiest and most likely place they'll be looking."

"We'll have to move fast," Jack said.

"It sounds like a risk," Avani said uncomfortably.

"It always is," Sam exchanged a look with Jack. They both knew what they were getting into. And they both hoped Stellan and Avani were up for the challenge.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For the next week they squirreled away as much food as they could. There was even some bread that came with their dinners that Jack and Sam were able to wrap up. They knew it would be stale and tasteless by the time their escape rolled around, but it was better than nothing.

"I wish we had a source of protein," Sam said one night as they inventoried their food stores. "It's a long way to travel with little food."

"The carbs should get us through. It's not going to be the hardest thing we've ever done," he pointed out.

"We need more food."

"There's still some time before we go. Avani hasn't been able to scope out the shift change at the side of the building yet, and your ankle isn't quite healed."

"I'm doing much better," Sam said and demonstrated a previously painful rotation of her ankle. There was barely a twinge. Though, there was still some pain when she put her full weight on it and tried to take a step.

"There's no reason to push too hard."

"Except getting out of here."

"There's one thing we haven't discussed."

"What we're going to do when we get to the city."

"Right."

"The stargate isn't guarded, so that won't be an issue."

"But we don't have GDOs."

"So we'll gate to the Alpha Site," Sam said. "Do you think we should check for Daniel and Teal'c in the city first?"

"If they were here, they're long gone now. They'd have been searching for us, or we've been declared MIA and they've been recalled."

"So straight to the gate and the Alpha Site, then."

"I think it's the best course of action."

She didn't disagree.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A few days later Avani excitedly showed them four completed water pouches.

"These will work great!" Sam told her.

Jack was buoyed by the wide smile on Sam's face. He'd found himself getting bogged down in the details as he and Sam went over and over their escape plan trying to make it as fool-proof as possible.

"And you are still collecting food?" Stellan asked.

"Yeah," Jack said. "We've got enough now, I think, but we'll keep collecting. I'd rather have more than we need than not enough."

"That is a wise decision," Avani said. "I will attempt to observe the shift change at the side exit again tonight." She hadn't been able to try every night as it would have aroused suspicion.

But that seemed to be her lucky night because she reported back the next day about the shift change that must take place inside the building because the side was left unattended for long minutes.

"We're never this lucky," Jack said to Sam quietly in their cubicle after the meeting with Stellan and Avani.

"That is patently untrue," she replied with a teasing tone. "We're always that lucky. Either a path is conveniently clear or we have the perfect plan that executes well, because we get ourselves out of situations like this time after time."

"Well," he harrumphed, "let's just hope our luck holds while we're actually attempting the escape."

She reached for him, put a hand on his shoulder, fluttered her fingers over the tight muscles, then moved to cup his neck. "We're getting out, Jack," she whispered

He itched to pull her into his arms, but despite the fact that they'd been as intimate as two people could be, they hadn't exactly upped their regular level of physical contact. But in the end, he didn't know what to say to her. He agreed with her, but he worried, more for her sake than for his, though the proximity to her was slowly driving him crazy. It was probably just the hard, repetitive work that kept him sane.

Instead, he raised his hand to cover her own, where her skin was still hot against his. He pressed her hand closer to him and gave her a small smile. He hoped it was agreement enough.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She hadn't intended to do it again. But they'd started with a conversation about their time on the ice planet, about how much they'd wanted each other, about how close they'd gotten without ever crossing the line, and about how they'd managed to cross the line with little issue here and then he was kneeling in front of her and she was sitting on the edge of the bed staring down at his intense brown eyes.

"One more time," she whispered to him. She needed him, just one more time. And, if the look in his eyes was any measure, then he felt the same.

"Are you sure?" he asked her and she knew it wasn't because he was worried she didn't want to but that he was worried they shouldn't cross the line when they were so close to going home. She, too, was worried that it would make going home more difficult, but not so worried she didn't want to do it. They were strong people. They could deal with this.

She threaded her hand through the hair at the back of his head and drew him up off his knees until he was standing before her. She reached for the hem of his night shirt and pushed it up over his taut abs until he got the hint that yes, she was sure, and he removed the shirt himself.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to a scar over his ribs and he shuddered against her mouth. She loved the feel of his warm skin beneath her lips and her fingertips as she ghosted them up his sides and across his chest. She lifted her face to look him in the eye. She saw heavy desire there, his eyes hooded and his jaw tight with the tension of holding back and letting her have her easy way with him.

She took advantage and moved her hands slowly over his torso, taking in the skin, the scars, the hair on his chest, letting her hands do all the roving she hadn't gotten to the first time. Using this last time together, she decided to slake her thirst for him as much as possible. She snaked her tongue out to taste the skin near his belly button and he jumped, startled, but he threaded his fingers through the hair at the back of her head and held her in place until she did it again, and again until he didn't jump, just rolled his hips towards her.

She could see how much he was enjoying her attention through the thin material of his sleep pants. She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to put her mouth on all of him, she wanted everything with him, but she didn't know far to go, how much was slaking and how much was taking.

She pushed him back a step and stood in the small space between him and the bed. She wound her arms around his neck, pressed her heavy breasts to his chest, craned her head back to look him in the eye. What she saw there floored her. He was giving her whatever she wanted. She could take her time with him.

She considered, for a moment, the light in their cubicle. If it stayed on, they'd be on display for any of the other couples who cared to see. But, if it stayed on, she could see him, and she so wanted to see him. "I'm going to leave the light on," she decided and searched his eyes for any sign he wasn't fine with that. "Okay?"

He nodded slowly and wrapped his arms around her, but he didn't make another move. It was clear that the night was hers. He would give. She would take. But, she decided, she'd give, too. Because there were so many things she wanted to do with him.

She lowered her hands to the waistband of his pants. She tucked her fingers inside, between his skin and the fabric. Then, she slowly lowered his pants, her eyes locked on his as she bent to push them down until they fell on their own, pooled around his feet. He didn't move. He just waited. She could feel his erection between them as she stood.

She wanted to see him. She remembered how he felt, she was anxious to feel him inside her again, but she needed to see him, to have an image to hold in her memory when the nights got long and lonely. She pushed him back a step and then, deliberately, sat back down on the edge of the bed. She kept her eyes on his until the last moment, when she dropped her gaze. She nearly lost her breath. He was perfect.

She wanted him in her mouth, an immediate reaction she was unfamiliar with. She wondered, idly, as she dropped to her knees in front of him, just how it would look to their neighbors. They'd yet to witness oral sex, though she'd be shocked to discover that it was something they simply didn't do.

She let the tip of his erection bump against her lips. He cursed lowly and dropped a hand into her hair. She swiveled her head to test his grip and found he wasn't directing her in any way, just touching the only part of her he could reach. She rewarded him by opening her mouth and leaning forward just enough to take him inside against her tongue.

She breathed deeply through her nose. He tasted salty and strong, the musky scent of him crawled inside her nose and made her tingle. She laved him with her tongue in wide strokes that made him groan her name long and low. She teased his dripping slit with the tip of her tongue then swirled her tongue over the head of his cock. She tormented him with her lips until he fisted his hand in her hair and drew her to her feet.

His tongue was in her mouth before she'd even registered the change in position. He kissed her deeply and she gave back as good as she got until he wrested his mouth from hers. "Too much," he said simply and she nodded. She understood. The heady taste of him in her mouth was almost too much for her, too.

He took the control he had momentarily and used it to strip her shift over her head. In the low light she saw the way he licked his lips when his eyes settled on her chest. She put a hand on the back of his head and guided his lips to her breast. He flicked his tongue against a taut nipple and she moaned lowly in response. He maneuvered her backwards until the backs of her knees hit the mattress and directed her to sit.

Once more, he knelt before her. Part of her wanted to guide him up off his aching knees, but the rest of her was sure she'd be glad he knelt between her parted thighs. And she was. He nipped and sucked at her breasts until her wetness left a damp place on the shorts she was wearing. His fingers encountered that wet place in their travels over her body.

He met her eyes when he felt it, his dark and hooded still and hers equally so, she was sure. He pushed her gently and she fell back, propped up on her elbows. From his place between her thighs he put his hands on her knees and pushed her open farther. She blushed under his scrutiny, sure he could see the wet patch on her shorts. He took an obvious deep breath and licked his lips.

Before she could fully process what that meant, he'd reached for the waistband of her shorts and was dragging them down her legs. She found she'd lifted her hips to help him. He'd discarded her shorts and buried his face between her legs before she was completely certain what was happening. Then she felt the first swipe of his tongue across her clit and she cried out quietly, mindful, somehow, of their neighbors.

Why, oh why, hadn't he done this to her before? Spikes of pleasure shot from her center to the tips of her fingers and toes, the heated electricity gathered at the base of her neck and in the points of her nipples. She felt the pull of his suckling low in her belly and the frissons of desire wound their way through her muscles making her taut but languid. Her head dropped back, torn as she was between watching what he was doing and just experiencing it with her senses.

His tongue was strong and sure as it moved between her opening and her electrified bundle of nerves. He was a strong sure tongue, open mouthed kisses and strong draws on her flesh. He was on her, inside her, a part of her. He was holding her just back from release. She whimpered. He said her name against her damp flesh and she looked at him. She met his eyes while his tongue drew lazy circles around her clit. It was beyond erotic the way it felt to look him in the eye while he brought her the kind of pleasure he was imparting.

She felt her pleasure coiling deep inside her and her breath caught. She fisted her hands into the bedclothes. She thrust her hips up at him and he chuckled against her, the vibrations traveled through her body to that pool of pleasure that was building. He sucked her clit between his lips and drew on her until she bucked against him moaning his name long and low. Then, with a dexterity she wouldn't have believed if she hadn't experienced it, he flicked his tongue against her until she spun apart. Her breath shuddered on her inhale and her body curled in on itself. She flung one hand out to hold his head to her as she came, he laved her gently while her body spasmed pleasurably and she took deep, gasping breaths which had his name or some curse on their exhales.

She shuddered and bucked but she felt empty and she realized, as good as it felt to come apart under his mouth, she wanted him inside her, needed to feel her muscles flutter around his perfectly thick cock, like he was made to fit inside her.

Drunk on the aftermath of her orgasm she released him and scooted farther back on the bed. He followed her, hovering over her body on his hands and knees. She pushed on his shoulder and turned them until he was on his back and she was straddling him, his erection caught between their bodies, her wetness slicking the underside of his length. She rolled her hips against him, letting her slickness coat him.

He groaned and grasped her hips directing her movements, wallowing in his own pleasurable torment. When his eyes were closed and his head was thrown back, she reached between them and guided him into her opening. From her place above him she controlled the way she took him in, sinking down on him slowly, allowing herself to adjust to him. Though he could have, he didn't pull her down onto him, nor did he thrust up inside her, he let her control both his pleasure as well as her own.

When she'd finally sunk down on him completely, when he was fully seated inside her, he met her eyes. He rubbed tiny circles on the hollows of her hips with his thumbs and she slowly, as slowly as her thighs would allow, raised herself up and then slid back down. She tortured him in the best possible way by keeping things slow and steady until finally he grunted and thrust up into her as soon as she reached the top of her stroke. She knew the time for teasing was over.

She shifted and placed her hands on his chest for leverage and used her new position to ride him the way he'd requested, sliding roughly back down onto his hips after each gentle stroke upwards. He began to grunt quietly each time their hips impacted and his eyes fell closed as he chased his pleasure. He must have felt himself getting closer because he dropped a hand between them and pressed on her clit with his thumb. She wasn't sure she'd come again, but if she was going to, he'd be the one to make her do it, she was sure.

She sped up her thrusts as she watched sweat break out on his brow. Her thighs burned with the effort but it was a feeling she knew would turn into a sweet ache the following day. Just as she was sure he was about to come she felt the familiar tingle build up behind her clit.

She gasped. "I'm going to come," she told him, surprised herself that it was going to happen.

"Good," he very nearly growled at her. His eyes opened and fell to the place where he was disappearing inside her and where his hand was helping her along toward the finish line. She faltered as the first jolt of pleasure shot through her body and he started lifting his hips into her, her warm, willing body accepting him easily despite the fervor of his thrusts.

She was so caught up in the feel of him beneath her that her orgasm took her by surprise. She inhaled sharply and pressed down into him. Her inner muscles clenched around him and he hissed. She felt him stop thrusting, remaining fully seated inside her and then the world was tilting and she was on her back underneath him.

He drove into her with a force that had to be fuelled by knowing it was their last time together. She felt tears prick behind her eyes. She gasped at the force of his impact, it hurt a little, but in a way she'd be glad to feel the next day.

He thrust inside her one last time, dropped his hand to her belly, and shuddered and bucked against her as he came. He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and rode out his pleasure, his hot breath washing against her skin.

When it was over she pulled him down to her, taking the full weight of his body down on hers. He allowed her to cradle him between her thighs for a short while before he pulled himself out of her and rolled to the side taking her with him until her head rested on his shoulder and her face was close to his.

He threaded his hands into her hair, their satiated bodies as close together as possible. "Tomorrow night," he whispered against her lips. She knew he wasn't talking about the two of them being together again. No. Tomorrow night, they'd try.


	12. Chapter 11

Jack lay awake staring at the high ceiling. He understood perfectly why he told her they had to try leaving. What had happened between them was too much, it was too intense, that if they were to stay, things between them might be irrevocably changed. As it was, he thought it was pretty wishful thinking that they could go back to the status quo on Earth. But he was feeling the need to get back there and get back to normal sooner rather than later. If he was ever going to get back to normal at all. She was inside him in a way she'd never been before. He wasn't sure if she was something he could leave behind, but he'd try. For her, he'd try.

As he lay there with her in his arms, her warm breath wafting across his chest, he was reminded that for her he'd do anything. It was a scary thought – it had been a long time since he'd felt that way about anybody. For her he'd move heaven and earth. For her, he'd give up SG-1, if she'd only ask. But she wouldn't. Likely never would, even if that was what she really wanted from him. She'd never ask him to give up something that was so important to him. But she'd likely never believe she was just as, if not more, important to him as the program.

He thought about telling her, but the words wouldn't come out right, he knew. Besides, he didn't think she'd appreciate that kind of pressure, anyway. The last thing she needed was him throwing himself at her feet and declaring the decision to be completely hers. It wasn't fair.

He stroked his hand over her hair, encouraging her slowly into wakefulness. She stretched against him, crooked her leg at the knee and slid her thigh over his. He could feel her center, damp against him. It made him wish again for more time in the mornings, but last night was as much goodbye as anything else so even if he had the time he didn't have the inclination. And if he kept telling himself that, maybe he'd come to believe it.

"Good morning," he said and pressed a kiss against the crown of her head. He wasn't made of stone, after all, and she was naked in his arms. He'd take small liberties. But only the small ones.

He felt her smile against his shoulder. "Good morning." She stretched languidly, her eyes opening slowly. Her eyes went soft and warm when they met his. As she looked around, though, her gaze became troubled. She froze against him suddenly. "Tonight."

"Yeah," he said softly.

She relaxed. "I'm nervous. Not nervous. Excited."

"Me too."

She rolled away from him, unselfconscious as the blankets pulled away from her breasts. She pulled at the blankets and covered herself back up, but with no hint of blush and he suspected she did it more for comfort than anything else. He liked that. Even if he wasn't going to take advantage of it.

He rolled towards her onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. "We've got what we need," he told her.

"Yes. That and a little luck and this is going to be fine."

"Damn right it's gonna be fine," he said. "We're getting out of this joint. Tonight." Mixed feelings or no.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam loaded the pockets of her work clothes with the food they'd squirreled away over the course of the past three weeks. Jack gathered both water packs in his hands. If he carried them just right, even full, it looked like he was carrying laundry. While everyone was milling around after dinner and during showers was the perfect time to make their way to the hallway that led out the side of the building and to wait for the shift change. It was fast approaching.

Jack and Sam went to Stellan and Avani's station to await the right time to move out. Sam was feeling jumpy, like her adrenaline had finally found an appropriate place and time to flood her system. She'd missed the rush.

"Okay," Jack said to the three of them quietly, "here's how we're going to do this..."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack poked his head out the side door and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There were floodlights casting large yellow circles in the darkness but they didn't cover the area right next to the building, the four of them would be hidden in shadow as they moved. The only thing that didn't work in their favor was the cream-colored clothing.

He pulled back into the building. They were in a little-used hallway that was, thankfully also empty that evening. "It's clear," he said quietly. He looked at Avani. "You'll follow me, Stellan will follow you," he reminded her. She nodded quickly, looking more than a little nervous. "Sam?" he asked and waited for her single nod of assurance, then he pushed the door open one more time, made another quick check and then flattened himself to the side of the building and started moving away from the door.

The walls were smooth under his back, like painted cement block, and still warm from the day's sunlight. He looked up. He couldn't see anything because of the way the floodlights stood out from the parapet mounts. He counted himself lucky the lights were mounted such as they were so that there was shadow to hide them both from guards who might be on the ground as well as any guards who might be on the roof. He wished he'd had an opportunity to scout out the area before making the escape, but he was doing okay on Avani's intel. He kept moving towards the corner of the building.

He looked back after fifteen steps to see Sam easing the door shut and then pressing her back to the wall the same as he, Avani and Stellan had before her. Jack crouched down a little and turned his body at an angle to the wall and began running. He didn't stop to see if the rest of them did the same, he knew they had, it's what they'd discussed, besides, he could hear the heavy footsteps of Stellan and Avani behind him as well as Sam's more careful steps. Getting from the door to the corner of the building as quickly as possible was important – they had no idea how long they had before guards reappeared.

Suddenly, the corner of the building was upon them and there was the large, empty space they'd have to cross between the building and the mountain. They stacked up at the corner one after the other and he searched each of their faces in the moonlight, asking with his eyes if all was okay. He received three nods in turn. Then, he heard voices from the clearing. Damn it. He stuck his head around the corner and pulled it back sharply. There were guards in the space!

He realized, once he was completely still, it sounded like they were moving away. He peeked around the corner one more time and saw the guards disappearing inside the building and he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

He turned around and gestured to the others. They were going to have to make a mad dash for the mountain. He looked briefly at Sam's ankle then back at her eyes. She nodded at him once more. And then, like a shot from a cannon, he took off across the empty space. Behind him he could hear the footfalls of the rest of the party. He ran far past where the mountain began, hoping to encourage the same from the others. He ran a good hundred yards past the clearing before he stopped.

Avani came to a sudden stop right behind him and he could hear the way her breathing was labored and he was suddenly concerned for the entire mission, granted they probably weren't going to sprint the rest of it. Hopefully. Next came Stellan and finally Sam who took the precious moments to check for guards before she made the last mad dash across the space. He waited for Sam's okay signal that all had been clear. But he held everyone in place and motioned for complete silence, putting his finger over his lips. He listened carefully for any sign they had been spotted, but all was quiet.

"We've got to put as much distance between us and them as we can under the cover of darkness," Jack reminded them in a whisper. "Are you ready to move?"

"Yes," Avani and Stellan both said.

"Yes, sir," Sam said to him. It was the first time in a couple of months that she'd called him sir and it hurt more than he thought it would even though he'd been through the shift with her once before. But, considering the circumstances, he could understand why she did.

Jack looked across the plain and off his left shoulder about forty-five degrees and realized he was looking downhill a bit and at the glow of city lights. Damn it. That meant that moving out across the plain they'd be seen far longer than if they could disappear over the horizon. The best bet would be to put as much distance between themselves and the camp as quickly as possible. "Change of plans."

"What?" Sam asked, an almost startled sound in her voice.

"We're going to cut diagonally across this plain until the sun comes up," he said decisively despite being able to see worry and confusion on the faces of Stellan and Avani. They didn't have enough experience to go with the flow the way he was asking them to, nor did they have experience with the way he'd sometimes call his gut. He just had to hope that they'd trust him.

He could see Sam calculating the distance they'd be able to cover in eight or so hours. At a brisk pace they should be able to cover fifty kilometers or more. At a jog, they'd be able to do more. Determination flickered across her face in the moonlight. "Yes, sir."

"We've got time before they notice we're missing. We need to cover twenty kilometers between now and then."

"Piece of cake, sir." Sam said.

He smiled at her. "I like cake." He turned to Stellan and Avani. "You two okay with this?"

"I do not know how far your kilometers are," Stellan said, "but we are prepared."

"Then let's move out."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Four hours later Stellan and Avani were starting to slow down, Sam estimated they were running on adrenaline and little else, and she estimated that they'd covered the twenty kilometers they needed to and then some.

"I need Water," Avani said and drew up short. Stellan stopped next to her and helped her maneuver her water pack around so she could drink from it.

"Go easy," the colonel said. "That water's got to last you days."

"I know," Avani said, panting. "Can we rest for a moment?"

The colonel looked back towards the camp as if they were still too close for his comfort. It appeared that all was quiet, though Sam wasn't sure if they'd hear a search should one be mounted. "Yeah," he said gruffly. "We can stop for a moment. Catch your breath." Sam was glad. She felt like they'd gone far enough to stop for a bit. It was, however, rather disconcerting to still be able to see the lights from the camp much better than the lights from the city.

"Thank you," Avani said gratefully.

"You are doing well, my love," Stellan told her.

"I am doing what must be done," she shook off his praise.

"You are, at that."

Sam could hear the amusement in his voice and she was saddened, a bit, by the easy relationship he had with his wife and how easy her relationship had been with Jack – the colonel – before they'd begun their escape. He really was  _the colonel_  again and it made her heart hurt in her chest. She was grateful they'd had the previous night together, grateful she got to show him how she felt, got to understand how he felt, too. At least she'd go home knowing that what was between them was something strong and powerful and, hopefully, something that could last and wait until the time was right. They hadn't talked about what would happen once they got home. She wondered if they should. After all, they had days of walking ahead of them.

"Something on your mind, Major?" the colonel pulled her out of her reverie.

"Just considering how much more distance we need to cover tonight," she lied.

"I'd like another thirty klicks," he said quietly and nodded his head towards Avani. "You think she can handle it?"

"I think she'll try," Sam said, unsure if the woman had another thirty in her before sunrise. Hell, Sam wasn't sure her own ankle had another thirty before sunrise. His plan was solid, and she'd learned long ago to trust his gut. But still, she wondered, "What  _are_  we going to do at sunrise?"

"We're going to lay low, stop for some rest and food."

"We'll travel under the cover of darkness?"

"Until we get far enough away, yes."

"What's far enough?"

"When the hairs on the back of my neck aren't standing up anymore."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack was proud of them. He'd pushed for fifty kilometers and hoped they'd make somewhere around forty. He thought they were somewhere between. It helped that the terrain was mostly sloping down towards the city, even if it was just a mild slope. Still, his knees were protesting the long walk and he was looking forward to the break likely as much as Avani was. Even Stellan and Sam looked ready to sit for a while.

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon when Jack plopped down onto the ground with a groan. "Here's as good a place as any," he said.

Sam dropped her water pack first then sat down next to him, her legs stretched out and her weight back on her wrists.

"How's your ankle?" he asked her quietly.

"It's fine," she said in a way that convinced him that it wasn't completely, and if he'd had an Ace bandage he'd be stopping her to wrap it. She pulled some squares of the oatmeal like stuff out of her pockets and handed him one. "We should eat something." Her stomach growled for emphasis.

He shook his head, "Give me some of the bread."

"Sir," she said warningly, "you need to keep up your strength."

"And I will,  _Major,_ but the bread is fine for now." He wanted to save the oatmeal for her or for later when he really needed it. He was hungry but he was fine. He noticed Stellan and Avani each eating the oatmeal. He was glad for it, but hoped their food stores would last. They both looked tired, but not too worse for the wear.

She shook her head at him but still put the oatmeal away and presented him with a piece of bread.

He ate the stale bread she'd given him and washed it down with some careful sips of water. One nice thing about traveling at night was not having to contend with exerting themselves under the heat of the sun.

"I'll take first watch," he said. "Everybody try to get some sleep."

"Watch?" Avani asked.

"One of us will stay away while the others sleep, keep watch just in case anything happens. Just in case they're looking for us. The sooner we know the better chance we have at getting gone."

"Oh," she said. "Right."

"But I'll take first watch. Carter will take second. Stellan, you'll take third, and Avani, you'll take last." He nearly smiled when the young woman looked relieved.

"What do I do if I see something?" Avani wanted to know.

"You wake us up," he said with a reassuring smile. "But for now, get some sleep."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam startled awake to the sound of a panicked voice. She was instantly on alert as she listened to the sounds around them for something that might have been danger. She turned one ear to the colonel and could already hear him shifting and readying himself for battle.

"Wake up, wake up,  _please_ ," Avani was saying.

"We're up," the colonel said. "What is it?" He was already scanning their surroundings.

"There is movement, almost where sight disappears, there," she pointed.

Sam looked for any sign of someone following them and tried to slow her heartrate. Coming awake the way she had had caused adrenaline to course through her system and it left her on edge. She threaded her arms through the straps of her water pack as she did so, readying herself to run if she needed to and instinctively reaching for a weapon that wasn't there. The colonel was doing the same.

Suddenly, Sam caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Her fingers itched for her weapon once more. She felt ill-prepared without it. "I've got it too, sir."

Stellan was in a fighters stance and Sam wondered where that training had come from and wished she knew more about his abilities in case the sighting came to something.

"Good enough for me," he said and she was immediately reassured that their time away from the field didn't seem to affect his confidence in her. "Low to the ground, and move as fast as you can. Let's put some distance between us and them."

The sun was low in the late afternoon sky but it was still bright. Sam knew that moving might give away their position, but if someone was after them, it was likely their trail had been followed so lying low wasn't the best option either.

The group moved out smartly. Crouched down as they were it was difficult to move quickly, but they were managing all right.

After several klicks the colonel stopped them. "Major, let's scope it out."

She and the colonel turned their eyes to the horizon. It must have been a good five minutes before he decided that whatever it was they'd seen was no longer a threat, if it had ever been one. "It might have been an animal of some kind," he said with a shrug. Sam continued looking, sure she'd seen something moving, but she trusted his assessment.

"We haven't seen any animals," Sam said dubiously.

"There are things that live on the plains," Stellan said. "My father used to hunt here."

"Well, it's time to get a move on, anyway," the colonel said. "Let's get something to eat while we walk. We've got a long night ahead of us."

If she knew him, and she did, she figured he'd want another fifty kilometers out of them that night. It was a punishing pace two nights in a row with a wonky ankle and two civilians, but they had a lot of ground to cover and it had to be done.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Halfway through the second night, Jack glanced over at Sam and saw her looking wistful in the moonlight. "Something on your mind, Carter?"

She looked at him carefully then shook her head minutely, "No, sir."

He sighed. "Don't do that, Sam."

She stopped walking. "What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me what's going on in that brain of yours."

"I'm not sure you want to know,  _Jack."_

Oh. Well, perhaps he didn't. Not that he wasn't pleased that the thought of him put a wistful smile on her face, but they needed to put space in between them and there was no time like the present to start. It was why he started calling her major or Carter again and, he was sure, the reason she went back to sir.

"I don't think either of us were under the impression this was going to be easy," he said to her.

"No, sir," she said quietly.

"I don't want to lose you, Carter."

She considered him carefully, likely running over all the possible meanings of that statement, overanalyzing his choice of her surname. "You won't, sir," she finally decided.

It was too much, too personal and she decided to change the subject. "Stellan and Avani are holding up well."

"They're quiet."

"Quiet is good."

"It also means we don't know how they're doing."

"They're keeping up," she pointed out.

"For now."

"Do you think we should stop? Let them rest some more?"

He cast a glance in their direction, noticed how both Stellan and Avani looked tired but not too tired to carry on. "Not yet. The more distance we can put between us and the camp before we start easing up, the better."

"I'm concerned about our water lasting if we draw this out too much."

"Carter, I'm concerned about our water lasting anyway."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh.

"We're doing the best we can with what we have. They've got to make it, so they will make it."

He sounded so sure. "Yes, sir."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam set her water pack down carefully and stretched her tired, aching muscles. After two nights of walking they estimated they were a third of the way back to the city. She was both hungry and thirsty, but they were on strict rations.

She'd been thinking about Jack all night. She'd been trying hard to keep the line drawn in her head between Jack and the colonel, but it was difficult when the man walking next to her looked like Jack but acted like the colonel.

No matter how hard it was to face him once they got home, knowing that their relationship had been irrevocably expanded, she'd make sure she was the same second in command he'd become reliant on. She would be a part of SG-1 and take him as her CO since she couldn't have him as anything else.

She thought about what leaving SG-1 might mean. What it might look like for her. And she realized it wasn't worth it. Because even if she left the team he'd still be her CO. He was the second in command of the entire base. As long as she was military and served at Cheyenne Mountain in the Stargate Program, he was going to be her CO.

It left her feeling a little empty but she shoveled over those feelings with her excitement of going home. She was anxious to see her friends, her house, anxious to sleep in her bed – even if it meant sleeping without him. She wasn't sure what that would be like anymore, it felt like forever she'd been sleeping in his arms.

"You're overthinking," he said to her just as she was lying back to close her eyes for the couple of hours sleep she'd get before her watch.

"I'm paid to overthink," she said shortly and he didn't say anything in response.

She looked over at Stellan and Avani who were curled up one another and were speaking in low, hushed tones. They were tired, also hungry and thirsty, but they've been real troopers. She was really impressed by how well they'd been handling the traveling. Much better, she thought, than she herself had. Her ankle hurt, not that she'd tell the colonel that, he'd just worry and what could they do about it anyway. They'd gone too far to turn back. The next day they'd be halfway to the city.

She wondered if Stellan and Avani, as good as they'd been so far, had what it took to make the rest of the trip. She knew they were both motivated, but motivation wasn't always enough. She and the colonel had training on their side, but Stellan and Avani had no such advantage. They were moving forward by sheer force of will. Which was impressive.

She focused again on the way their bodies were entwined and she looked, wistfully, at the colonel. She longed to mold her body to his and fall asleep against his solid warmth, but that wasn't going to happen, and not just because he was on watch. Going back to normal was going to be so hard.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They started walking later that day when the sun was high in the sky. They were all tired but also anxious to get to the city and to the stargate. In the light of day they could see both the city and the mining camp. By now they were likely missed, but hopefully far enough away that they weren't visible to the guards from the camp.

"What is going to happen to us when we get to your planet?" Avani asked.

"You'll stay on our base until we figure out where to send you," Sam answered

"And how long do you think it will take to find us a new home?" Stellan wanted to know.

"Not sure," Jack said. "But we'll do our best to make it quick."

"I did not think your leaders would work slowly on such a task," Stellan said with a smile.

"No," Jack replied with a chuckle. "Carter and I have a couple of ideas. Daniel – one of the guys on our team – will probably have something to say about it, too."

"It does not matter to us where we go, so long as we do not come back here," Avani said.

"We do not want to risk going back to Trinigoth," Stellan answered.

It was Sam who spoke up. "I understand."

They fell quiet after that. They killed some of the empty space by eating some of their meager food stores and continued on their way.

Jack kept stealing glances at Sam wondering what she was thinking. It had been clear her mind was going a mile a minute as she dealt, internally, with what had happened between them. And she was clearly a little prickly about it. Probably just doing what she had to do to compartmentalize.

He was doing his best to do the same. But he kept having flashes of the looks on her face the night before they escaped. She'd looked gorgeous all spread out underneath him. She'd  _felt_  amazing wrapped around him. He'd remember what had happened between them, even knowing it couldn't happen again. At least not for the foreseeable future.

There were things he wanted to say to her, but she was doing a good job of rebuilding walls and didn't seem all that receptive to the friendly overtures he'd tried to make so far so he didn't say them. Besides, he had two alien civilians who were completely reliant on him being able to keep his head in the game, so he shoved his thoughts and feelings to the side to focus on their immediate needs.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Six days after they left the mining camp, they trudged into the clearing at the stargate bypassing the city proper entirely. Tired, hungry, thirsty, and in Sam's and Jack's cases, at least, achy, there wasn't the sense of excitement she'd anticipated. Not from her, anyway. She wanted to make a beeline for the DHD. Avani's eyes were wide as she took in the tall buildings visible from the stargate clearing. Stellan looked warily at the gate – aware of it's existence and confronted with it were two different things, apparently. And the colonel, he was bringing up the rear and was looking around like someone was going to jump out at them any moment and send them back to the mining camp.

But despite the tired, hungry, thirsty, achy feeling, Sam felt immense relief as she stared down the path to the DHD. They'd finally made it. No, perhaps there wasn't a sense of excitement, but there was a tingle inside her that said  _finally, it's time to go home._ She looked over at the colonel and saw that his eyes were softening as well, with the realization they were alone in the large clearing. Easily a kilometer away from the bustle of the city, she felt relatively safe where they were.

Relatively safe, for the moment, but also a little on edge. Because... well, it felt... wrong. It shouldn't be this easy. They'd managed to escape the mines, they hadn't been followed – as best as they could tell – and they were able to just walk right up to the gate, ready to dial home? Sam walked up to the DHD, but her sense of trepidation was beginning to grow. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle. Never a good sign.

"Dial it up, Major," the colonel said as he came to a stop behind her. "Alpha site," he reminded her unnecessarily.

Warily, she dialed. Part of her expected the mining camp guards to jump out at her at any moment or she expected herself to awaken from a dream. It had been months since she and the colonel had been taken to the mining camp it seemed like a bit of a let down that it turned out to be so easy to get home. "It's too easy," she said quietly.

"It was easy because we prepared."

"No, sir," she disagreed, but she wasn't sure what more to say. It wasn't like him to be so flippant nor was he apt to believe the sunshine and roses version of any set of events. Perhaps the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, too.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and dial it up," he said shortly.

She dialed the alpha site, cursing the slow nature of the dial but equally pleased to not be using the even slower computer. She looked around the perimeter of the clearing one last time. As the gate opened with a kawoosh, three people strode into the clearing with purpose. Sam didn't recognize them, but they looked like they could be city officials. She didn't know exactly how the city officials were involved in their capture and their relocation to the mines, but she wasn't prepared to talk it out at that moment. "Colonel..."

"No time to talk," he said, catching the figures out of the corner of his eye, "time to go." He propelled Stellan and Avani up the steps to the gate and then through the shimmering blue. The figures began moving more quickly towards Sam and the DHD. She dashed out from behind the device calculating how long it would take one of the people to make it to the DHD in time to see the address. She looked over her shoulder to see the aliens closing in on her position and redoubled her efforts to get to the gate. As she flung herself through the event horizon she had the sinking feeling that she hadn't been quick enough.


	13. Chapter 12

They materialized on the outdoor gate platform of the Alpha site with six weapons pointed at them. "Stand down," Jack said to the men, "it's just half of SG-1 and a couple of friendlies." The faces weren't altogether familiar but the uniforms were and Jack felt some of the tension he'd been carrying around the last few months begin to melt away.

A tall man with rich black hair and a confident swagger exited the command building just off to the side of the stargate.

"Colonel O'Neill?" a young SF asked, his voice wide with awe. Clearly news of his MIA status had reached the Alpha site.

"In the flesh," the colonel answered. "Eric," Jack greeted the man with black hair.

Colonel Robinson, the site commander, walked up and shook Jack's hand. "You've been MIA almost three months, nice to see you back." Colonel Eric Robinson was a dry man, so Jack wasn't exactly expecting shock and awe, but he wouldn't have minded impressing the man a little bit.

"Good to be back. We had some unfriendlies on our tails there at the end, might want to keep the SFs up."

"How many?"

"Three, that I saw, sir," Sam spoke up. "But they weren't armed."

"They could collect reinforcements. We're not sure if they saw the gate address or not."

Sam seemed to do some quick calculations in her head then said, "By my estimation, we're probably safe, sirs."

"We'll keep the SFs posted just in case," Robinson said. "Major Carter, welcome home."

"Not home yet," Jack said. "But until we know if we were followed, I'd prefer a bit of a layover."

"You got it, Jack. Who are your friends?"

"A couple of locals. Stellan," he said pointing first at the man, "and Avani."

Robinson sized them up. "Why don't we get you folks something to eat while we wait?"

Jack watched as Sam's eyes lit up. Avani had tucked herself into Stellan's side but even her eyes went bright at the mention of food. "We'd appreciate that."

"I'd offer you showers but we're not exactly set up for guests." Jack assumed that meant they could shower but that they'd just have to put their dirty clothes back on anyway.

"The food'll be fine," Jack assured him.

Robinson first insisted that the medical officer take a look at the four of them. He, of course, said it was to make sure they were all as well as could be after their arduous trip, but Jack knew it was to ensure they were who they said they were. The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes and Jack knew they'd be subjected to far more invasive and extensive exams once they returned to the SGC.

After that, Robinson scrounged up some sandwiches, water and coffee and for them. Jack downed two bottles of water in rapid succession and watched as the rest of the party did the same. Thirst temporarily slaked, they all turned to their sandwiches.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see turkey and swiss," Sam commented after a less than dainty bite.

Avani and Stellan ate their food, but slowly. The unfamiliar meat and bread must have been a bit of a shock. Either that or they were afraid of how it would look if they tucked in heartily the way Sam and Jack had.

"We could find you something else," Robinson offered when he noticed how slowly the two aliens were eating.

"No, this is fine," Avani said with a grateful smile. "It is just different than what we are used to."

"No sandwiches on... where were you?"

"P3C-928," Sam said. "In a mining camp called Trinigoth."

"And no," Jack said. "There was a lot of oatmeal. A  _lot_  of oatmeal." He grimaced. He'd been a fan before his captivity but he was pretty sure he'd never touch the stuff again. "Any word on Daniel and Teal'c?" Jack wanted to know.

"Both were part of the search and rescue attempts; I assume they're both on Earth. SG-1's been on stand-down and Jackson's been in every weekly briefing meeting since you went missing."

So they were okay. And they'd been searching. It made Jack feel better, knowing.

"So they must never have been compromised," Sam surmised.

"From my understanding you went missing and they notified General Hammond late the night you didn't return from a tour of the city," Robinson told them. "SG-3 was dispatched to lead the search, but..."

The man trailed off and Jack knew how the sentence, and the story, ended. They hadn't been found. They'd spent three months in a mining camp three hundred kilometers from the city. A mining camp no one realized existed.

"Well, we're back now," Jack said with finality.

"Yes," Robinson said, "you are. You finish eating," Robinson said. "I'm going to call in to the SGC and let them know you're here." He got up from the table and left the small commissary.

"We will be going somewhere else?" Avani asked.

"Back to our base on Earth," Sam said with a nod. "Our stargate is protected so that not just anyone can come through it the way we did here. So by coming here first we can check in at home to ensure they open the gate, so to speak.

"After that, we'll have to be seen by a doctor to make sure we're okay, like we were here, but the exam will be more extensive. Usually that doesn't take too long, unless they find something we should be careful about."

"But I feel fine," Jack put in.

"And so do I," Sam said but she glanced down at her ankle and grimaced slightly. "So, we'll probably be released after the exams."

"There will be a debriefing," Jack continued. "That's basically just a meeting where we tell the General what happened on our mission and while we were captive. He may want you there, he may not. If not, we'll find you quarters and you can get some real rest. If he does, rest might have to wait a little longer."

"We will do whatever your...  _General..._ deems necessary," Stellan assured.

"Of course," Avani agreed. "We appreciate you taking us to your home, and away from the camp."

"We still don't know where you'll end up," Jack warned.

"Anywhere is better," Avani said with conviction.

Jack couldn't agree more.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"It's been an hour," Robinson said to the colonel. "If anyone was coming through we'd know by now. I'm sure you want to get home."

Home. Sam was anxious to get back to the SGC, back to regular life, back to missions, back to her lab, back to Daniel and Teal'c. But, by the same token, and she shot a glance at the colonel while she was thinking about it, part of her knew that she was leaving something behind. She'd left a piece of herself in that mining camp, she'd left carefully constructed walls it had taken her years to build. She wasn't sure what it would take to re-erect those walls now that she knew so much.

Jack was a good lover, kind, generous, passionate. But her feelings for him ran so deep that it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been an average lover at best – she felt like he was a part of her now. Going back to the chain of command, while it was something she did during the escape out of necessity and self preservation, was going to be very difficult. Not because he wasn't a good commander but because she felt like she was changed.

The colonel's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "Let's dial it up."

Sam felt equal parts giddy and let down when the gate began to spin. She watched as each chevron turned orange and then, finally, as the event horizon formed. She looked over at Stellan and Avani in time to see her grab his hand, her eyes lighting up with wonder at the sight of the gate in action, again.

"Command, is General Hammond around?" Robinson asked across the radio connection.

"Alpha site, this is General Hammond, go ahead."

"General Hammond, request permission to come home," the colonel said next.

There was a moment of silence and then, "Colonel O'Neill, it's good to hear your voice."

"I've got Major Carter, sir. And a couple of alien friendlies."

Another moment of silence. "Come on home, Colonel. Major. We're anxious to see you."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack wrapped Daniel in a friendly hug. "Good to see you, Danny Boy."

"Jack!" Daniel said returning the hug fiercely. They released one another and Daniel turned to Sam, wrapping her in an equally fierce hug. "Sam!"

"It is indeed good to see you well, O'Neill," Teal'c said and clasped forearms with Jack in a traditional Jaffa greeting.

Jack hung back as Sam enthusiastically hugged Teal'c, too.

"I think we've got a helluva debrief coming, son," General Hammond said as he shook Jack's hand. Hammond indicated Stellan and Avani with a nod of his head. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Stellan and his wife, Avani. They helped us escape the mining camp."

"Mining camp? Is that where you've been this whole time? On P3C-928?" Daniel asked his questions in rapid succession.

"Yeah," Jack returned.

"We didn't know there was a mining camp. We looked for you guys on the planet for weeks. The city officials finally determined you must have been taken by offworlders. They said it happened sometimes."

"People are taken to the mining camp," Stellan said. "It is how I went to Trinigoth and how your friends got there as well."

"We didn't know," Daniel said, clearly upset by the fact that they'd been on the planet all along.

"We know, Daniel."

"But Jack – "

"It's fine. We're here now."

"Yes, you are," General Hammond said. "And we'll debrief as soon as you've seen Doctor Fraiser, and cleaned up."

"Yes, sir," Jack and Sam said together.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Daniel had wanted to follow them to the infirmary, but the colonel had shaken him off. Sam was glad because they hadn't exactly discussed what was going into their mission report. "Sir," she said quietly as they traversed the halls, "about what happened..."

"What happened didn't happen," he said with resignation. "As long as that's what you want."

"I think it's what we both want." She said it, and she meant it, mostly.

He stopped walking and turned to her. Behind them, Stellan and Avani stopped walking too, keeping a discreet distance as it was clear that Sam and Jack were having a personal conversation. "Is it?"

"We want SG-1, right?" That was the truth. She knew they both wanted SG-1. If they didn't things would have gotten a lot easier between them a lot earlier.

He hesitated, for just a moment. "Yeah."

"Yeah. Then it didn't happen." She frowned unhappily. "I don't want to just forget it."

"We don't have to forget it. We just have to move past it. Can you do that?"

She nodded. "I can."

He smiled wistfully, "I think I can, too."

It made her feel good to know she'd crawled up inside him the way he'd crawled up inside her. It made her feel a little more like she could set it aside. For the time being. Because knowing it was hard for him too made it all a little easier, a little less lonely.

"Do we need to talk about this more?" he asked her softly.

She smiled at him, raised a hand to brush something imaginary off his shoulder. "One day."

He gave her a sad smile in return. "One day."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Sam!" Janet exclaimed when she preceded the colonel into the infirmary. She embraced Sam enthusiastically then released Sam and shot the colonel a look, "You two are a sight for sore eyes." Then Stellan and Avani stepped into the infirmary. "And you've brought friends," Janet said smoothly, instantly attempting to put the nervous looking alien couple at ease.

The colonel introduced them around once more and then in a flurry of activity, they were all being separated off by nurses ready to give them their exams. Sam ended up on one curtained-off bed with Janet while the others were being seen to by other members of the medical staff.

"God, it's good to see you," Janet said.

"It's good to be home."

"I bet! Where have you been all this time?"

"In a mining camp on P3C-928. We never left the planet."

"A mining camp?"

"Forced labor," Sam said, "though, to be honest there wasn't much force required. The mining camp is some distance from the city and there are always guards. After I sprained my ankle, it took us the entire time just to be able to make our escape."

"You sprained your ankle?"

"Yeah, but it was weeks ago, now. It's only a little sore from the trip."

"Sam, you're as bad as the colonel when it comes to lying about how much pain you're in. Let me see it."

Sam dutifully held out her ankle and let Janet examine it. It was aching pretty badly and there was a sharp pain when it was rotated just right. Sam tried not to flinch. She wasn't sure she was completely successful.

Next, Janet popped a thermometer into Sam's mouth with one hand and picked up some vials for a blood draw with the other.

"Three?!" Sam said, aghast, around the thermometer.

"Complete workup," Janet said with a sympathetic smile. "Sorry, Sam, but you were gone a long time."

Sam frowned around the thermometer and then winced first when Janet tied a tourniquet tight around her arm and then again when the needle pierced the vein in the crook of her elbow.

After the blood draw and a normal temperature, Janet carefully wrapped Sam's ankle in an elastic bandage and handed her a bottle of anti-inflammatories.

"Well, you're underweight, I'd guess malnourished and have a strained ankle. And that's before the blood work comes back," Janet said with a sigh.

"Are you worried about the blood work?"

"You've been eating alien food and drinking alien water for three months. Yeah, I'm worried." Janet scribbled some figures down into Sam chart. "And I'm going to schedule you for a psych eval."

"Janet-" Sam started.

"No getting out of it, Sam. It's standard operating procedure – I couldn't get you out of it even if I wanted to. And I don't want to."

"We're fine."

Janet shot her a look. "You've both been held captive, presumably against your will, for three months. You're getting the psych evals."

"I really am fine," Sam said to her friend quietly. "I know it seems like that's impossible, but really, aside from spraining my ankle, being worked day in and day out, and being underfed, it wasn't the worst place we've ever been." No, the place definitely had its perks.

"Sorry, it's not negotiable." Janet labeled the vials of blood and then put them in a test tube holder.

Sam huffed. "Fine." And scowled at Janet's back when she turned to walk away.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack leaned back in his chair. After he finished given General Hammond the long version of events, he found that he'd been speaking for over an hour with a few interjections here and there from Sam, Stellan or Avani.

"So you weren't mistreated?" Hammond asked incredulously.

"Well, we weren't tortured, but Carter having to work on a sprained ankle and little food counts as mistreatment in my book."

"Colonel O'Neill," he said with exasperation, it was clear he didn't think Sam's discomfort was worth mentioning.

"No, General, we weren't mistreated. All things considered, it was a... well, pleasant is the wrong word, but it was no Netu."

"And now we have Stellan and Avani," Hammond said.

"We were hoping to relocate them to another planet," Sam said. "After what happened in the camp, and with Stellan having already been removed from the city once, they're not safe staying there."

"Where did you have in mind, Major Carter?"

"I thought we'd start with the Land of Light," she said. "They've been receptive before."

"You should understand that many of the worlds available to us will be very different than where you came from," General Hammond said gently to the two aliens.

"That," Avani said slowly, "is not important. I could not stay there, you must understand."

"I do."

"We appreciate however you are able to help."

"We'll do our best to get you relocated quickly," he promised. He beckoned one of the SFs into the room. "Will you take our quests to the VIP quarters and help them get settled in?"

Jack was concerned. That was something he or Sam were fully capable of doing, but having Stellan and Avani removed from the debriefing was a tactical issue more than a politeness one.

Once they were gone Hammond turned back to Jack. "You've put me in quite the position, son."

"This isn't the first time we've had to deal with alien refugees."

"No, but promising to help relocate them?"

"I'm not sure staying here is the best option for them. Not like with Nyan," Sam said. "They'd be happier somewhere... simpler."

"It's not always about their happiness, Major. It's about what we can accomplish."

"Yes, sir," she said and ducked her head a little.

"They helped us get out, sir. We owe them."

"I understand why you feel that way, Jack. But I wish you hadn't made promises we might not be able to keep. Our allies may not be prepared to take on the alien couple, not even those from the Land of Light."

"Yes, sir," Jack said. But hell, it was easier to ask for forgiveness than it was permission, right? "Won't happen again, sir."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After the debrief, Sam was summoned back to the infirmary. "Something wrong with my tests?" she asked Janet as she took a seat in the chair next to Janet's desk.

"Nothing... bad... happened to you in that camp?"

"No," Sam said with a shake of her head. "Aside from spraining my ankle and a case of sore muscles, I'm fine."

"Avani was raped."

"Yeah," Sam said slowly. "It was a danger for the women there."

"But you weren't?"

"No, there would have been hardly any chance. I was rarely out of the colonel's sight."

"I see," Janet said thoughtfully. "Is there anything else I need to know about your time in the mining camp?"

"No, Janet," Sam said with exasperation. "Why?"

"Because, Sam, honey... you're pregnant."


	14. Chapter 13

Sam froze. Her hands that had been busy gesticulating were hanging comically in the air. "Pregnant?"

"Pregnant," Janet said with a nod. "Your birth control shot was due shortly after you were captured."

"But... I wasn't... I didn't... I mean..."

"Sam?"

"I wasn't having periods."

"Well, apparently, you were going to. It can sometimes take your cycle a while to normalize after being on birth control for so long. I'm going to need to do an ultrasound to determine how far along you are. Unless... do you know?"

Sam was flummoxed. She'd had sex twice, three weeks apart, the last time a week ago. If she said she didn't know, she'd be telling Janet she'd had a sexual relationship with someone on the planet rather than having one oops moment. Janet would assume, Sam was sure, that the relationship had been with Colonel O'Neill especially after making the comment that she was rarely out of his sight. The fact that it was the truth just made it worse.

"Sam?"

"No," she said softly. "I don't know."

Janet nodded slowly. "Okay. Well, you can have some time to think, if you need it."

"I don't know when I got pregnant, Janet," Sam said with exasperation.

"I meant about your options," the doctor said gently. "We can tell how far along you are with an ultrasound, but you don't need to have one right now. Until you know what you want."

"What I want?" Sam parroted back. She was confused by what Janet was saying. She was confused by the whole thing. Pregnant. She'd just found out and already she was supposed to know what she wanted? Well, an ultrasound would tell her how far along she was, and while she didn't know much she did know she was curious to know when she'd conceived. It was a morbid sort of curiosity. No clue what she was doing but she wanted to know when she'd gotten into this mess in the first place.

"I want the ultrasound," Sam decided.

Janet got Sam set up on one of the infirmary beds and wheeled the machine over. "I don't do a lot of these here," Janet warned with a small smile, "so bear with me." Sam was directed to push her pants down a bit and to lift her shirt to expose her lower abdomen. Janet squeezed some clear gel onto Sam's stomach that was cold and made her shiver a little. "Sorry," Janet said, "I don't have a warmer."

"It's okay," Sam said, quietly, still a little stunned that this was happening. She'd just found out she was pregnant and then just moments later she was on a bed for an ultrasound. It seemed surreal and it probably spoke to how flustered Janet was by the news that she hadn't insisted on talking more about it. Though Sam knew a conversation was coming.

Janet pressed the ultrasound's transducer probe into Sam's lower belly and moved it around through the gel slowly until something that looked like a black spot appeared clear as a bell surrounded by fuzzy grey on the screen. "There it is," she said.

Sam stared at the screen. It looked like an empty bubble to her, but what did she know?

Janet did some fancy clicking and lines began appearing on the screen and then a box popped up with some letters and numbers. Janet pointed to the screen. "Gestational Age, six weeks."

"Six weeks," Sam repeated dumbly. Well, that meant the first time, except...

"The gestational age is based on your menstrual cycle," she explained, "so you probably conceived four weeks ago."

Oh. well, that made more sense.

Janet continued to move the probe around and Sam was able to watch the heartbeat on the screen. It was the heartbeat that made it real after looking at an empty bubble. Sam felt her stomach turn over and she was suddenly sure she was going to vomit. "Janet," she warned.

Sam felt her face flush. She clapped a hand over her mouth and, thinking quickly, Janet thrust a basin into Sam's hands just in time for Sam to lose the turkey and swiss sandwich she'd eaten at the alpha site. Janet disappeared and returned with a cup of water.

"I'd like to tell you that was the pregnancy," Janet said somewhat amused, "but I'm guessing it was the shock. But the hormones probably aren't helping."

Sam shot a glare at her friend and then carefully sipped at the water. "I'm not hormonal."

"Your blood tests say different, Sam," Janet said gently. "And so does this ultrasound. You're pregnant." Janet took the basin from Sam and disposed of the contents while Sam wiped the gel off her stomach.

Sam studied Janet's face looking for what, she wasn't sure exactly. Maybe some idea about whether her friend knew the truth about the baby's parentage or some kind of disappointment. But all she saw was a gentle smile. "You're restricted from gate duty now, of course," Janet said. "But your pregnancy won't affect work on base, so once you've recovered from your time in captivity, there won't be a problem with you returning to your lab."

How could she just go on like this was an everyday, ordinary event, Sam wanted to know. She looked at the doctor dismayed but Janet just continued like she didn't see the look on Sam's face. "We'll need to get you set up with an obstetrician who can talk to you about your options," Janet did falter there, just a little, and Sam was glad to hear it. It meant her friend wasn't completely immune to what was happening.

"Janet," Sam stopped her with one hand raised, "Don't you have anything to say?"

Janet exhaled slowly. "I'm not sure what you want me to say. Are congratulations in order?"

"No!" Sam said shortly, perhaps a little too loudly. She dropped her voice. "Not,  _no,_ just... I don't know what to think right now."

"Do you..." Janet trailed off and Sam could see the woman was uncomfortable with the question she was about to ask. "Do you know who the father is?"

Sam sighed. She wasn't even sure how to answer the question.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam knew she had precious little time to keep the pregnancy to herself and she also knew she needed to tell Jack before Janet had a chance to tell General Hammond who would, in turn, tell the colonel. The colonel who would know precisely who the father was. She just needed to find him and tell him. She had to be the one to tell him.

So, naturally, she ran into him in the corridor between the infirmary and her lab. She groaned internally, she wanted to talk to him, but she wasn't yet sure what to say.  _Hi, sir. I'm pregnant._  It hardly seemed like the way to broach such a serious subject. She had no idea how he was going to react. But her best guess was that no matter how he felt he'd start off with shock. It wasn't like either of them had talked about birth control. Hell, she hadn't even  _thought_  about it. How responsible was that?

"Carter," he said to her when she stopped walking directly in his path. She was sure she was gaping a little. "Everything all right?"

"Oh. Yeah. Why?"

"Because you were called back to the infirmary..."

"Oh. Right." She could have smacked herself on the forehead, as stupid as she was feeling at the moment.

"So everything's okay?"

"Yes, sir. Fine." Right as rain. Except for that pesky pregnancy, that is.

"Good," he said slowly, like he didn't really believe her.

She didn't blame him. "Going somewhere?" she asked him, hoping to change the subject.

"Coming from, actually. Hammond asked me to drop off a couple of files to you; sciency stuff," he said with a shrug.

She couldn't help but grin at him a little. He had made her so happy on that planet and now... now she was pregnant with his baby. The grin fell off her face.

"What?" he asked her.

"What?" she felt stupid again... still... something. The conversation wasn't going well. She was all mixed up. Happy to see him, scared to death, and apparently not great with verbal exchange at the moment.

"Carter, you sure you're okay?"

She shook her head, hoping to clear it but realized, when he started to frown, that he probably took it as a no. "I'm fine," she reiterated.

He exhaled sharply and looked even more confused. "If you say so."

"I do, sir."

"Okay, then I'm going to..." he hitched a thumb over his shoulder.

"Yeah, okay."

"See ya," he said, still looking a bit bewildered.

"Yes, sir."

He narrowed his eyes at her, shook his head, then turned around and walked off in the opposite direction he'd been going when she'd run into him. Apparently her confusion was catching.

Later, he'd understand, she reasoned to herself, why she'd seemed so off her game, so flummoxed. Later, he'd be feeling the same things she was feeling. Later she wouldn't have to be doing this alone, but for the moment, she needed time to process the situation. Needed to know what she wanted to do before she told him.

She needed time. She turned around and went back to the infirmary. She stuck her head into Janet's office.

"Do me a favor?" she asked the doctor and waited for her to look up from the file in front of her. "Give me a little time before you tell anyone?"

"I'm going to have to tell the general when I brief him on your medical conditions."

"When is that?"

"Tomorrow morning, oh-nine hundred."

"Okay," Sam said. It wasn't long enough, but it was going to have to do.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam paced from her kitchen, through the dining room, into the living room and then back again. Over and over. She felt like she'd soon be wearing a hole in the floor. She considered her options – she didn't need an obstetrician for that, thank you very much. They were two, at this point: have the baby, or don't have the baby.

She considered for milliseconds terminating the pregnancy but realized... she wouldn't do that to Jack. Oh, she hadn't talked to him about it yet, but she suspected he'd react badly. Very badly. They hadn't talked about a future at all. They'd even tabled all conversation on the subject until an undetermined date that was, sometime,  _in_  the future. But now they had a future together whether they liked it or not. They'd always be the parents of a child created together. Whether things worked out between them or not. Though, she'd put money on things working out. Except...

They couldn't. Things were not going to be easy between them. Not at this juncture. If only she hadn't gotten pregnant they could have treated their time on the planet as the aberration it was. But now they were going to have to face it and all the ramifications that came with it.

So maybe she should terminate. He'd never have to know. It would make their lives so much easier. And better. Except...

Not better. The baby, it was about them. The two of them together. She found she wanted the baby, partly because it was proof that the two of them had been together even if they couldn't be now.

She looked at the phone. It sat there, mocking her for her indecisiveness. She should call him. She picked up the phone, dialed his number, waited three rings for him to pick up. "Sir," she said in as steady a voice as she could manage, "I've got something I need to tell you."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He'd been expecting this phone call. Had been ruminating on it all evening. "How far along are you?" he preempted her declaration.

He heard her sigh, but she should have known. He knew her backwards and forwards. It hadn't taken him long to figure out why she'd been flustered after leaving the infirmary when she had to go back about her blood work. "About six weeks."

"But..." he said slowly, "we weren't... we didn't..."

"They count from my last period, not from when we actually conceived," she said with a little exasperation, though he'd bet she hadn't known that either.

"Oh. You're keeping it, right?" he asked her as if it were a foregone conclusion. Consequences flipped through his mind like film through a projector. He knew it was a selfish question. Maybe even a question she didn't have an answer to just yet. "You don't have to answer that," he told her.

"I do. I need an answer to that question," she said quietly.

"If it were up to me the answer would be yes."

"It is up to you, at least partially. As much as it's up to me."

"Well," he said. "I appreciate that." He dropped his face into his hand.  _I appreciate that?_  What the hell? "I mean, thank you for letting me be part of the decision."

She chuckled wryly. "What? You think I want to be in this alone?"

The whole thing felt surreal, he couldn't help thinking. Sam. Pregnant. So much for leaving their time together behind them. So much for not letting it affect their work. Sam. Pregnant. With his baby. Something he'd thought of more than once if he was honest with himself. But also something he thought of as part of a still distant future,  _not_  as part of his present.

"What are we going to do?" she asked and there was a hint of panic in her voice.

"We'll do what we've got to do, Sam, this is going to be fine." He hoped he sounded soothing because he didn't like that sound of desperation in her voice.

"Fine? We're going to be court martialed."

"We need to talk to Hammond," he said with a resigned sigh. Because, chances were, she was right.


	15. Chapter 14

Jack knocked on the General's door.

"Come," floated quietly through the heavy material.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Good morning, sir."

"Morning, Colonel. What can I do for you?"

"I know it's short notice, but I was wondering if you had time for a short meeting this morning."

"I've got a debriefing with Doctor Fraiser at-"

"Yes, sir. I'd like to speak with you before that. Along with Major Carter."

General Hammond blinked slowly. "I see," he said. "Well, I have time now, Colonel."

"Thank you, sir," Jack stepped out of the way and let Carter step in around him.

The General frowned a little. "This must be important." He closed the file in front of him and set it aside deliberately. "What can I do for the two of you?"

Jack watched as Sam fidgeted nervously, uncharacterisically.

"There is something we left out of our reports, sir," Jack said carefully. "And the ramifications are going to affect us all."

The General's frown deepened. "Go ahead."

"Sir, Major Carter and I developed a... personal relationship... while captive."

"A personal relationship?"

"Yes, sir."

"How personal?"

"I'm pregnant, sir," Sam blurted out and Jack winced.

The General's face went blank before he composed himself. "I see." He paused, as if he were running through all the possible problems in his head. "Are congratulations in order?"

Jack looked at Sam and she gave him a wan smile then looked at the General and said, "Yes, sir."

"Well, that's... good," he said slowly. "I don't have to tell you two how this complicates matters, do I?"

"No, sir," they said in unison.

"Or that this could spell trouble for you both?"

"No, sir," they said again.

Jack was waiting for the inevitable confession that they'd have to be charged for fraternization, but the General didn't continue. He seemed to be waiting for one of them to speak. So Jack jumped in. "Sir, we're both prepared to accept the consequences of our actions."

"Son," the General said gently, "You were both held in captivity for three months. The consequences might not be as extreme as you think."

Sam sent a shocked look in Jack's direction. "What are you saying, sir?"

"I'm saying the rules are a little different in dire circumstances."

"But sir," Sam started, and Jack was sure she was about to tell the General that their circumstances hadn't been that dire.

"Thank you, sir," Jack cut in.

"That's not to say it's entirely up to me," the General warned. "But I'll do my best to protect you both."

Jack was stunned. He'd been sure they were going to be read the riot act. "Thank you, sir," he said again and he was pretty sure he'd never called a superior officer sir so many times in one conversation. But he'd never messed up quite this bad, either.

"Yes," Sam said quietly. "Thank you, sir."

"Until we know more, I'd recommend you didn't pursue a personal relationship here on Earth," he warned, not unkindly.

Sam looked confused. "But, sir, we're..." she floundered for a moment and finally settled on the obvious, "pregnant."

"And perhaps we should keep that between us and Doctor Fraiser for the time being. Do we have a little time?" he wanted to know.

"Yes, sir," Sam said. "I'm only six weeks along. It'll be a while before anyone would be able to... tell."

"Then let's keep this under our hats. I'll run it up the flagpole and see where we are."

"Sir," Jack said, "we appreciate your going to bat for us."

"I'll do my best," the General said. "For now, though, you're dismissed."

"Yes, sir," they said together once more.

Jack and Sam both turned away and just as they were leaving the General stopped them. "Sam? Jack?"

They both turned around.

"Congratulations."

Jack smiled when he saw Sam do the same.

"Thank you, sir," he said for them both.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In her lab she finally took the opportunity to really breathe. "That went... better than expected," she said to Jack who was standing at her lab table fiddling with a device he probably shouldn't be touching. She took it out of his hands gently.

He relinquished the trinket. "Yeah." He rubbed his palms on the thighs of his pants. "Are congratulations really in order?"

She exhaled heavily. "Yeah, I think so. Don't you?"

He cocked his head to one side and studied her. "I think we haven't really talked about this much."

"I didn't really know what to say last night," she admitted softly.

"Yeah, me either."

"It was good we got out in front of the medical report. And I didn't know what else to say. It's not... it's not the  _worst_  news."

"No," he said with an emphatic shake of his head. "It's not."

"But this does... complicate things... like he said."

"Like SG-1."

"You know I'm grounded now, right?"

"Yeah."

"And if we have a baby together, it means we can't serve in the same chain of command. Which means no more SG-1 for me."

"Or me."

"I can work in the labs," she said. It only made sense.

"Or I can retire," he said as if it were the better option.

"That makes no sense at all," she countered. "What are you going to do?"

"Stay home and raise a baby?"

"While I go off gallivanting around the galaxy?" she asked hotly.

"I think we might be jumping the gun here a little," he said after a long moment.

She sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"And we probably shouldn't be talking about this here," he reminded her. They were, after all, supposed to be keeping the news of her pregnancy under their hats. Perhaps a small base wasn't the best place to be talking about their options.

"You're right," she said resignedly.

"We've got a lot to talk about," he said quietly, "and I don't think who's going to stay home with the baby is the right place to start."

"No need to get ahead of ourselves," she said. "We've got time."

"Another thirty four weeks," he said with a soft smile that made her insides go liquid.

"We should probably talk about what  _we_  want, first," she said.

"After Hammond has a chance to go to the brass. No personal relationship right now," he reminded her.

"Right." The thought made her sad. It was going to be tough enough going through a pregnancy, let alone going through it secretly and alone. It must have shown on her face.

"You're not alone in this."

"I am, a little."

"No," he reiterated. "You're not. We may not be able to have a relationship, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving you to deal with this alone."

"We're going to have to be careful," she said.

"Because even Daniel and Teal'c can't know."

"Right." She'd never really pictured being pregnant, let alone doing it in secret. "So for now we just.."

"We just... hold our horses."

She smiled. "Hold our horses?"

"Well," he floundered, "Yeah. We don't do anything."

"I don't think I can do nothing," she gestured at her belly.

The smile he gave her lit up the room and she felt like maybe, it was all going to be okay.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Stellan and Avani were still adjusting to Earth food. "There's so much!" Avani had exclaimed when they all – Stellan, Avani, and SG-1 – got in line in the commissary.

"You just choose what you want," Sam said to her friend. "You don't have to have it all."

"None of it looks familiar," Avani said with concern.

"There are sandwiches, like you had at the Alpha site," Sam pointed. Or there's hot food. Looks like lemon chicken, today."

"Chicken?"

"It's a bird," Jack pointed out, rather helpfully he thought, but Stellan and Avani both still looked confused. "It's good," he said with a shrug and had a helping heaped onto a plate. He noticed Sam was still moving down the line making little faces at each thing she encountered. She'd had nothing but some dry toast at breakfast after the meeting with Hammond and wondered if it was the pregnancy that was making the food look unappealing. Not that he could ask her. She ended up with a fruit salad and some cottage cheese and he hoped it wasn't so unusual, or that maybe they'd been gone long enough, that it would raise any flags for the members of their team.

Stellan and Avani both opted for the more familiar looking sandwiches and the six of them all sat down at one of the tables.

Daniel, predictably, was so fascinated by Stellan and Avani that he didn't seem to care what Sam had on her plate though Teal'c shot her choice an interesting look and a raised eyebrow. Daniel asked numerous questions about the mining camp and their lives there. Avani seemed to enjoy the conversation and Stellan had to remind her to eat between questions. Stellan seemed rather reticent about talking about the camp. Jack figured it was because the man was happy to be away after so many years being held captive.

He wondered what it would have been like to have had a normal life and then to be taken captive for so long. There were good things about Stellan's time in the camp for sure. He met Avani and the two of them seemed perfectly suited to one another. Jack thought about what it would have been like to have been taken captive like that and to have met Sam that way. He thought it would have been worth it.

"Are you two settling in okay?" he broke into the conversation when it became clear that Daniel was going to stay stuck on life in the camp. He didn't want to be drawn in into talking too much about his and Sam's time there.

"The accommodations are nice," Avani said with a small smile. "It is strange, though, to be so cut off from the people around us."

"The living was communal there, then?" Daniel asked.

"Yes," Jack said at the same time Sam said, "Sort of."

Daniel shot an intrigued look between the two of them. "So which is it? Yes or sort of?"

Sam and Jack exchanged a look. "Yes," the two of them said together.

"Right," Daniel said slowly flicking glances between Sam and Jack. "So..." he said and turned his attention back to Avani and Stellan.

Jack let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He glanced at Sam to find her giving him a surreptitious look back. He nodded towards her food that she'd been picking at. She made a face but stuck her fork into a piece of melon anyway.

Jack wasn't sure how long they were going to be able to hide from their teammates, but he didn't think it was going to be that much longer. Hammond better figure something out fast.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It had been a few days since Sam and Jack had broken the news to General Hammond about the pregnancy and a few days since they'd even talked about it. She'd been thinking on her own a lot and she supposed he had been too. Sam sat in her lab, thinking again. It was still strange to think of herself as pregnant. But now she had to think of herself as pregnant with options. For the time being there was no chance of a relationship between her and Jack. In truth, as they hadn't really talked about, there was a chance that they wouldn't pursue a relationship at all.

Except... he had offered to retire. Did that mean he was interested in a relationship if they were allowed to have one? Or did that just mean that he intended to stay around to help with the baby? What had happened between them was intense, but maybe it had just been because of their situation. For so many years they'd grown together but kept their feelings bottled up. Maybe they'd have never acted on them if it weren't for their time in captivity.

Their jobs were important to both of them. She knew that much. They had a once in a lifetime opportunity to do what they were doing. Was she really willing to let him give it up? Was his decision up to her at all? Was she prepared to give it up? Having a baby didn't mean she couldn't go back to gate travel afterwards? She wouldn't be the only one with children who traveled through the gate. But would she be willing to put her life in that kind of danger knowing she had a child at home?

Being grounded for the time being meant she was working with the science department but that didn't mean it was a permanent assignment. It was just where she'd be most useful. But it wouldn't be long before people started asking questions about why she wasn't going through the gate with her team and gossip would spread. Who knew what people would actually say? Would they speculate that she was pregnant? In a relationship with her CO? Or would they assume it had something to do with her mindset after having been in captivity?

If she kept the news of her pregnancy to herself...

"Major Carter, a word?" General Hammond walked into her office and interrupted her reverie.

Sam stood up but the General waved her back into her seat as he closed the door. "Yes, sir?"

"I've just spoken with Colonel O'Neill and I wanted to be the one to tell you... The brass isn't happy with recent developments, but have agreed to forego official charges."

"That's..." she floundered, surprised, but happy, "really good news, sir."

"Yes, it is. However, an unofficial reprimand will be placed in your files."

Well, that wasn't the best news, but it could have been worse. "Yes, sir."

"For the time being, as you know, you're assigned to the science department. But depending on how you and Colonel O'Neill choose to move forward, that may become permanent."

She'd figured this was coming. But she was still unsure how she felt about giving up her spot on a front line team permanently. "Depending on how we choose to move forward?"

"If you choose to pursue a relationship, one of you will be reassigned from SG-1. I don't have to tell you," he said gently, "that it would likely be you."

"No, sir," she said quietly, "you don't."

"And there are no open spots on gate teams. Not that there wouldn't be after the baby was born," he said raising a forestalling hand. "On a more personal note," he said a bit uncomfortably, "you'd be the only people on the planet who had a child whose parents both undertook the risk of interplanetary travel, should you choose to be put back on a front line team once a spot opened up."

"I had been thinking about that, sir."

"I'm prepared to offer you a permanent spot in the science department."

She nodded slowly. "When would I have to make a decision?"

"If you choose to pursue a relationship with Colonel O'Neill, your only option would be a position with the science department," he said apologetically. "Colonel O'Neill is my second in command over the gate teams. If you moved to the science department you'd report to the XO."

So it was a relationship with the father of her baby or gate travel. It was a hell of a decision to make. She'd have him in her life one way or the other. She couldn't have everything she ever wanted – both Jack O'Neill and gate travel. Though, in all actuality, she already knew that. It was the reason they'd both kept their feelings bottled up so long. But now there was the pressing addition of a child.

"You should know," the General said, "that Colonel O'Neill has mentioned the possibility of retirement."

"To me, too, sir," she replied honestly.

"But I can't let him do that. The program needs him."

She sighed. "Yes, sir."

"But even Colonel O'Neill can't be on a front line team forever."

"So you're saying we should wait?"

"I'm saying you  _could._ The decision is up to you entirely."

"It's a tough decision." And one she'd need to talk to Jack about.

"I imagine it is. I know this isn't a perfect solution, Major Carter, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances."

"Yes, sir. I understand. And I appreciate what you've done for us. We didn't mean for this to happen. We never would have put you in this position if..."

"I know that, Sam."

Tears sprang to her eyes at his gentle tone. She blamed the pregnancy hormones, though it could have just been the situation. It was easier to blame the pregnancy as she wiped her eyes in front of the base commander.

"Talk to Jack," Hammond said with conviction.

"Yes, sir."

"When you're ready, we'll talk about this some more."

"Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome."

The General turned and left her lab. Sam's mind was whirring with possibilities. There was so much to consider. At least she had options. They might not be perfect, but they did exist. Even if Jack couldn't retire. And being with the science department didn't mean she'd never get to go off world again, it just meant it wasn't likely to happen with any regularity. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that at all. But...

Could she have a child with Jack and  _not_  be in a relationship with him? People did it all the time, she supposed, but it was not the way she pictured her life. No, she didn't get to have everything she ever wanted. But now it was time to decide exactly how much would be enough to be happy.


	16. Chapter 15

He showed up at her house uninvited and she thought it was probably a bad idea that he was there but she let him in anyway.

"I want you to be very sure what you want," he said as he moved into her entryway.

Sam was flummoxed. Of course she was sure what she wanted. She wanted Jack. She wanted their baby. And she wanted the stargate. She was absolutely sure what she wanted. She was also sure she couldn't have it all.

"Because this is a big decision," he said when she didn't answer him. He was backing her into her living room and towards the couch.

She knew it was a big decision. She didn't need him to tell her that.

"And you've got plenty of time to make it."

"Well, that's untrue," she said as she sat down on one end of the couch.

"She speaks," he said wryly, he sat down on the other end. "What do you mean it's untrue?"

"I mean, as soon as I start to show we're going to need to have a game plan in place. Because people are going to start asking questions. Which means, I figure, I've got six weeks. Maybe eight."

"I don't want to start something here only for you to decide you want the 'gate after all," he said quietly.

Her heart went out to him. "I think it's a little late to worry about starting something," she countered, albeit gently.

"I never meant for you to have to choose between me and gate travel."

"And I never meant to have to choose, but here we are."

"If only they'd let me retire-"

"Don't, Jack," she said. Then thought better of it. "Sir." She tangled her hands up in her lap and finally settled for, "Jack," when he shot her a pained look. "Look. Maybe over the next seven and a half months I'll get used to not going off world."

"We won't get used to not having you."

"Well, you're going to have to," she said pragmatically. "Because either way, I'm off SG-1. We can't serve on the same unit if we have a child together. And not just because it's a bad idea militarily, but because we can't both leave the same kid behind each time we go through the gate. It would kill you, and you know it. What if something happened?"

"Something could happen to you if you go through the gate on another team. And then what?"

"So you're saying you don't want me on a gate team?" she asked hotly.

"No, I'm not saying that," he said diplomatically with his hands raised in supplication.

"Well, I'm not sure what you're saying."

"Neither am I," he said with a sigh. "We're just talking."

"Not very well."

"No," he said with a wry chuckle, "we're not."

"We used to communicate so well."

"It was different, then."

"Yeah," she said sadly, "it was."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In hindsight, he probably should have noticed she was pregnant before she knew considering the amount of time he spent staring at her chest. He wasn't sure when, exactly, it happened, but her breasts were definitely bigger than they used to be. Of course, he'd never really stared at them when he was sitting across the table from them in the commissary. She kicked him under the table. He met her eyes with a sheepish grin and a shrug, but he looked at Daniel and Teal'c to see if either of them had noticed. Daniel was giving him a funny look but it probably had more to do with the way he'd jumped when Sam kicked him than with him having been staring at her chest.

Soon enough Daniel herded Stellan and Avani off to his office to continue interviewing them about their planet and Teal'c left to spar with some members of SG-5.

"You were staring," she said to him when they were alone.

"Sorry," he said though he wasn't really sorry at all. Sorry for getting caught, maybe.

"It's okay," she said and gestured vaguely at her chest. "I know I'm..."

"Yeah."

"I want to talk to you about something," she said seriously. "Can we go to my lab?"

"Sure," he said. He collected his empty plate and noticed hers was still mostly full when she picked it up. "Not hungry?"

She made a face. "Not really. And nothing tastes good. Besides, I just end up throwing up whatever I eat anyway. Well, until evening."

"The food on the planet sat well with you."

"It was very bland," she reminded him. They walked together to her lab. Once inside, she closed the door and took a seat behind her lab table. He pulled up another stool and sat down across from her and waited for her to speak. She seemed to be collecting herself. "How... involved... do you want to be?"

"With what?"

She looked at him with exasperation. "With this pregnancy."

He hesitated. He hadn't really done all the pregnancy stuff with Sara when they were going to have Charlie. It wasn't that he wasn't excited, it was that, at the time, he'd considered the pregnancy to be mostly her contribution. They'd fought about it for years after Charlie was born. Oh, not knock-down-drag-outs, but she'd held it against him.

But, he was a different man now. And this was a different situation with a woman he didn't think he was ever going to get to have. So, he found himself itching to be involved in every step she'd let him be part of. So he told her that.

"I thought you might say that. Which is why I think I should find a civilian obstetrician."

"A civilian?" he asked, nonplussed.

"If you want to go to the appointments, we need someone who doesn't know we shouldn't be in this position."

"I'm not prepared to hide forever, Sam."

"Neither am I," she assured him. "But if we're keeping this to ourselves for the time being, then it stands to reason we'd be better off with a civilian doctor who doesn't know us from Adam's housecat."

"It still feels like hiding," he said petulantly.

"You know, as well as I do," she said gently, "that we could see anyone at the Academy medical complex and it wouldn't take long at all for news to get around that you and I were seeing an obstetrician together. From there would come the inferences that we'd gotten together while in captivity and that's why I was thrown off SG-1."

"Well, all that's true," he said with a shrug, "though you weren't  _thrown off_  SG-1. You were re-assed. And why are we keeping this to ourselves anyway? You're not on SG-1 anymore. You can't go through the gate. People are going to notice. And you're going to start looking pregnant eventually anyway."

"We're keeping it to ourselves because the General asked us to," she said.

"He asked us to keep it to ourselves until the brass had made a decision. They have." But if she wanted a civilian, if she wanted to play her cards close her chest a little longer, he wasn't going to fight her on it. "So," he said, "a civilian doctor." He knew he still sounded like the idea left a dirty taste in his mouth, but he couldn't help it. He was career military. He liked the idea of her being cared for by one of their own. But he trusted her to choose a doctor she was comfortable with and one that would let him be as involved as possible. "Okay."

"I'll start looking into it, then. It'll be a while before anything interesting, like another sonogram, happens, though."

"I'm not just in for the interesting stuff, Sam, I'm in this for the two of you."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She was really glad he felt that way because she knew she wasn't the easiest person to deal with. Her food aversions were strong and her morning sickness relentless as it stretched well into the afternoon. Which made it very difficult to hide from Teal'c and Daniel, especially.

"Sam, are you feeling all right?" Daniel asked her one day.

"I'm fine," she said, but she knew she was a little green around the gills. The chicken breast sandwich wasn't agreeing with her.

"You've hardly touched your lunch."

"I'm not that hungry."

"Come to think of it, you haven't been eating much lately at all. Are you sure you're okay?"

"For crying out loud, Daniel! She's allowed to not be hungry."

"Geez, Jack," Daniel wheedled, "I was just concerned. No need to bite my head off about it."

That was the point at which Sam was sure the jig was up. But if Daniel suspected a pregnancy with – or without – the Colonel's involvement, he wisely kept it to himself. She liked to think that she'd made it into week eight while still keeping her secret.

She'd yet to make a decision about what she really wanted – a permanent position in the science department or a spot on one of the other gate teams. Jack had told her to be sure, so she wasn't rushing into any decision, but it was difficult. She wanted him. But if she just jumped on that particular want without giving it the proper amount of time thinking about it, he'd never believe she truly chose him. He'd think it was about the baby. And, it sort of was. But it also wasn't.

At the same time, though, she thought about leaving gate travel behind and how difficult that would be. Her military career had been a part of her identity for so long and she'd worked so hard to get where she was that it seemed a shame to give it up just because she had an oops moment and ended up pregnant.

It killed her she couldn't have both a relationship with Jack, her baby's father, and the ability to travel through the stargate, but she understood it, also. Still, she continued to think on it, though, for Jack's sake. So that when she finally did tell him what she wanted, he believed her.

Later he found her in her lab – they seemed to spend a fair amount of time in her lab together, probably a byproduct of having been in close proximity for so long. How he wasn't tired of her yet, she didn't know. But she wasn't tired of him, so maybe she could understand a little. What she did, though, was miss him. Their relationship on the planet had been so very different than their relationship here on Earth. She missed the easy camaraderie, the gentle touches, she missed the sex. Well, she missed the idea of the sex. She wasn't feeling all that interested in the actual act at the moment.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It had taken several weeks, but they were finally able to relocate Stellan and Avani to the Land of Light. SG-1, sans Sam, geared up to take them.

"Where's Sam?" Daniel wanted to know.

"She's staying behind." Jack hoped the simplicity of his statement would disinvite further questions. He was wrong.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Daniel. She's got work to do in her lab and her ankle still has her on light duty."

"But she's friends with Stellan and Avani. And surely her ankle isn't that bad anymore."

"Sometimes we have to do what our superior officers tell us to."

"I'm sure if someone just talked to General Hammond -"

"Daniel, she's not going. That's it."

"Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"No."

"Because you're acting awfully weird."

And that's when Jack realized that they weren't going to be able to keep anything from SG-1. They were going to have to tell their team, especially since SG-1 would be going off world without Sam for, well, ever. He was just hoping to buy more time until Daniel really started asking questions. Like, until after she was showing and they'd decided how they were going to break the news to people.

It didn't take long to get Stellan and Avani settled in. Avani gave Jack a long hug when it was time to say goodbye, and she thanked him profusely and asked him to pass her thanks along to Sam. Jack knew Avani had already said her goodbyes to Sam but he promised to pass the message along anyway. He knew the woman was just happy to finally be where she could settle in. Stellan seemed more relaxed and at ease than Jack had ever seen him.

Jack was especially pleased Daniel and Teal'c were off talking to Tuplo and his daughter when Avani looked at him and said, "And please accept our congratulations."

"Your... uh... what?"

"Sam is with child, is she not?"

And Jack was suddenly reminded that Stelland and Avani worked with the bearers in Trinigoth – naturally they'd be better at spotting a pregnant woman than your average person.

Jack smiled tightly, feeling guilty to be having the conversation at all knowing Sam was pretty private about the whole thing. "Yeah," he finally decided to answer.

"I thought so," Avani said with a blooming smile. "Sam was quiet when I mentioned it, but I could tell."

"It's... different for us at home."

"Believe me, Jack, I have noticed. But do not let those differences keep you from Sam and your child. You were happy with her."

"Yeah, I was."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam came awake slowly. She felt the weight of a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and was confronted not with her bedroom, but with her lab. Out of the corner of her eye, someone crouched down beside her.

"Hey," Jack said softly.

She closed her eyes again and tilted her head to rest on his hand. He reached up and put his other hand on her knee.

"Wake up," he said with a little humor in his voice.

Suddenly it occurred to her that she was in her lab, which meant at work, and she was asleep in her desk chair. She bolted upright in her chair, eyes flying wide open.

"Oh my god. Sir. I'm sorry."

He chuckled lowly. "Easy, Carter. I remember this part. Tired all the time?"

"Suddenly I'm sleeping nine hours a night," she verified.

"You're... what? Ten weeks now?"

She nodded.

"You're growing a human, Carter. You're gonna be tired."

She sighed. "But it would be good if I could keep from falling asleep at work."

"It's eight o'clock. Your body is telling you that you should have been home by now."

"I'm never going to get anything done at this rate," she bemoaned.

He smiled at her indulgently. "Yeah, you will. Just more slowly."

"You're not helping, Jack," she said primly and then she realized what she'd just called him. Calling him Jack in her head was one thing, but she'd been careful to stick to 'sir' or 'Colonel' when they were on base.

Either he didn't notice or he didn't care though because he just helped her out of her chair by her elbow and said, "Come on, let me take you home."

"My car's here," she protested.

"So? You're too tired to be driving, and besides, we need to talk about something."

"People are going to talk if we leave together."

"Carter, we've left this base together dozens of times, and so far no one's said anything the rumor mill couldn't kill."

She deflated. "Yeah, okay."

He walked her to the locker rooms where he waited while she changed into civilian clothes. When she came back out he touched her elbow gently to turn her towards the elevators. They didn't talk while they walked, or while they signed out, or while they made their way to his truck. But it was a comfortable silence, born, she thought, of their time together on the planet. The ability to be together and not having to fill silence was a practiced art.

She climbed into the cab of his truck after he popped the locks and settled in for the twenty minute drive to her house. She hoped he'd start talking soon, because while the silence didn't bother her, the suspense did.

They were barely underway when he said, "I think Daniel's getting suspicious."

She couldn't help but grin. " _Getting?_ He's been looking at me out of the corner of his eye for the last two weeks."

"Last week he wanted to know why you weren't on the mission to take Stellan and Avani to the Land of Light. I tried to put him off, but I don't think I did a great job."

"No, you didn't," she said, but she said it with a smile.

"I got grilled when you guys got home. He wasn't pleased I wasn't on the mission. He didn't even buy the ankle thing."

"Damn guy's too smart for his own good," Jack groused.

"I think we should tell them."

He looked at her sharply and she was glad they were stopped at a red light. "I was thinking the same thing. But I've been getting the impression you wanted to keep this to yourself."

"Daniel and Teal'c are... different. They're... family."

He accelerated through the intersection when the light turned green, but his eyes were on her. "Yeah," he said gruffly, "they are."

"How much do we tell them?"

"Well, I don't think they're going to want the nitty gritty details, Carter," he said with a rakish grin.

She felt herself blush. "No, I didn't think they would. I mean, we're going to tell them I'm pregnant and grounded from SG-1. We should probably explain this means I'm not coming back."

"Daniel's not going to be happy," Jack observed.

"No, and he's not going to understand."

"He should. He's been working with the military long enough."

"Should and would are two different things," she said.

He was quiet for a few moments. "I really thought I was going to have to convince you to do this."

"What? Why?"

"Because you've been pretty careful so far about people not finding out."

"I'm not... Jack," she said softly and wished for another red light, "I'm not ashamed. You understand that, right?"

"Well, it's nice to hear it," he said just as quietly. "But no, I don't guess I really thought you were ashamed to be carrying my baby, but I'm not going to say it doesn't hurt a little to be holding our cards so close to the chest."

"It's just... you know what people are going to say about me when they find out. You'll be the big man who bagged the blonde and I'll be the subordinate officer who couldn't keep her hands off her CO as soon as she had an opportunity."

"But we know it wasn't that way."

She nodded, but continued, "And, it's my career that's affected by all this. I'm still dealing with that."

"I know it's upsetting, Sam."

"I don't regret my choice to keep the baby," she said, suddenly sure she needed to reassure him. "But it is tough to know I have to choose between you and a gate team. I know it shouldn't be any choice..." she trailed off quietly.

"I don't begrudge you not making it lightly. I  _told_  you to take your time."

She wondered then if he hoped she'd choose gate travel. Maybe what happened between them really was a product of their time on that planet and he didn't want to pursue a relationship after all. He was too noble a man not to enter into a relationship with the mother of his child, though, if that was what she wanted. Was she trapping him with this baby? He wouldn't have wanted her to terminate, but was this a tough decision for him, too?

They made the rest of the trip in silence as she thought about the implications of his telling her to take her time. He was quiet, too, and she wished she knew what was going on in his head. It would make everything so much easier.


	17. Chapter 16

Jack invited both Daniel and Teal'c over for steaks and beer. A team night, he told them. And yes, Jack assured Daniel, Sam would be there. It started out like many nights that came before it, beers on the deck, rare steaks charred to perfection, and plenty of conversation.

If anyone noticed that she was drinking Diet Coke instead of beer, then they didn't mention it. It wasn't such a strange sight anyway, especially since Teal'c was known to pass on the beer and Daniel was notorious for stopping after two.

When it was finally time, Jack sat them all down together at the picnic table and said, "Listen, Carter and I want to tell you something."

A look of dread passed over Daniel's face. "This has something to do with why you didn't go to the Land of Light. And why we're out of rotation, doesn't it?"

"Yes," she said simply and resisted the urge to reach for Jack's hand.

"You're not okay, are you? Something did happen to you on P3C-928."

"Yeah, something happened," Jack said.

"But I'm completely fine," Sam continued.

"Then what is it? C'mon, guys."

"It's..." Jack started, faltered.

"I'm..." Sam had the same trouble.

They exchanged a look. Sam took a deep breath and Jack gave her an encouraging smile. Sam looked back at Daniel first, then landed her eyes on Teal'c when she said, "I'm pregnant."

Jack could see Daniel's face fall, a look of understanding settled into place, and could tell the man was ramping up for an apology. Jack nipped that right in the bud, reached over and put his hand on Sam's back between her shoulder blades. " _We're_ pregnant."

"Whoa," Daniel said lowly, shock clearly written over his features.

Sam and Jack both waited for the reactions to come. It was Teal'c who spoke first. "Is this good news?" he wanted to know.

Sam and Jack exchanged another look and Sam nodded while looking him in the eye. "Yes." She turned her attention back to Teal'c. "It is."

"So you mean... you guys... on P3C..." Daniel seemed unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Yeah," Jack said and he could feel himself almost blush. He tamped that shit back down. He had nothing to be embarrassed about.

"How pregnant?" Daniel asked in a daze.

"Twelve weeks," Sam said.

"And you're fine? The baby's fine?"

"We're both doing great."

Daniel nodded, still knocked sideways. "Good. Good." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "So... now what?"

"Now," Sam said slowly, "I work in the science department until the baby comes."

"And then you'll be back on SG-1?"

"No," Jack said. "She's off the team."

"When were you going to tell us that?!" Daniel exclaimed.

Sam chuckled. "Right about the time we told you  _why._ "

"How long have you known?" he asked petulantly, like they'd purposefully been keeping the news from him. And they had, a little.

"Since I was six week along."

"You've known for six weeks?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, it took me a little while to get used to the idea," she countered.

"So now what?" Daniel wanted to know.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked him.

"I mean... Sam's off the team, and you two are... what?"

Jack looked at Sam. He wasn't sure how to answer the question. Apparently, she wasn't either so Jack picked up the ball and ran. "And now, we'll figure it out."

"We can't just..." Sam started. "There are decisions to be made."

"What kind of decisions?"

"Like what I do once the baby comes."

"I don't understand."

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c broke in when it became clear the younger man was going to continue to ask personal questions that Sam and Jack didn't yet have the answers to, "I believe congratulations are in order."

"Oh," Daniel said, deflated. "Right." He got up from his place at the table and went around to give Sam a hug. "Congratulations," he said almost warily.

"Thank you," she said, barely refraining from laughing at him.

"What about me?" Jack put in.

Daniel folded his friend into a more enthusiastic hug, but barely. "Yeah, you too."

"Gee," Jack said, "thanks."

"Sorry, guys, this is just a shock."

Jack thought it was probably more of a shock that the baby was his than that Sam was pregnant, but he didn't mention it. "Imagine it from our end," he said wryly and ruffled his friend's hair like he was a kid. It caused Daniel to stand up, run his fingers through his hair and glare at Jack.

"I can't," he said with a shake of his head. "But really, guys, if you're happy, I'm happy for you."

"This is good news, Daniel."

Jack couldn't help but like the conviction with which she said that.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was three days from the time Sam mentioned to General Hammond that she'd like to get word to her father that her father stepped through the gate. He'd never even known she was missing, having been on a mission of his own, so she figured it was all going to be a shock. And, therefore, it didn't really matter where she started.

She'd asked Jack to allow her to do this alone. He had acquiesced, albeit reluctantly. He'd reminded her she told him he could be involved and she'd told him that she'd meant it but that her father could require, well, delicate handling. So she'd sent Jack on his way and driven her dad to her house for the beginning of a week long visit. She almost decided to wait until the end of his visit to tell him, but found she was rather excited, even if she didn't know how he'd take it.

They had a pleasant dinner and it wasn't until they were sitting in the living room, catching up a little that Jacob stopped her inane ramblings. "Sam, what's on your mind?"

"What?"

"You're rambling. You only do that when you've got something on your mind. So... what is it?"

She took a deep breath and collected herself. "Almost five months ago, Colonel O'Neill and I were taken captive on P3C-928. We were held there for three months in a mining camp. While we were there, our relationship turned... personal."

Her father looked startled by the frank way she delivered the information. She was a little startled herself. As if it were business as usual.

"I'm pregnant, dad."

His eyes dropped to her stomach where she still didn't show – not in clothing anyway – and then he met her eyes again. "You know," he said quietly, "it was always clear there was something between you. I just didn't think either of you would let it go that far."

"We wouldn't have," she assured him, "if the situation had been different."

"I like him, you know?"

She smiled a little. "Yeah?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, he gets on my nerves, but he's a good guy. A good man."

"Yeah, he is."

"What does this mean for your career?"

He switched topics so quickly she had to flounder a moment for the answer. "I'm off SG-1 and working in the science department until the baby comes."

"Which is when, exactly?"

"May nineteenth. I'm almost thirteen weeks."

"And what happens after the baby comes?"

"I don't know yet. I have to choose between gate travel and the science department."

"Doesn't sound like much of a choice."

"I have to choose between gate travel and Jack, dad. I can't have both. If we're in the same chain of command, we can't be together."

He was very quiet. "Then it doesn't sound like there's much of a choice," he said again, more carefully.

"You think I should choose..." she led, hoping he'd fill in the blank.

"I can't make the decision for you, Sam, but you only get one life. Do you really want to live it alone?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack pulled down the ladder that led into his attic and collected himself. He hadn't been up there in years. Sam did one hard thing – she talked to her dad. So Jack, out of solidarity, figured he'd do one of the hard things, too.

He climbed the ladder. When he was waist high into the attic he reached for the string to turn on the light bulb. It took him a moment but he found it. He blinked against the harsh light of the bare lightbulb and then climbed the rest of the way up.

He stood on the plywood floor, hands on his hips, looking around. What he came for was stacked all together, off to one side, covered by a set of old sheets that Sara had bought. He took a deep breath and strode over to the items and pulled the sheets off reverently.

Beneath them was a crib, a changing table, and an old rocking chair. The crib and changing table had been bought new for Charlie but the chair belonged to Jack's great grandmother, then his grandmother, then his mother, then Sara. And Jack wanted to give it to Sam.

He wasn't sure how she'd take it. If she'd want something so old, so tied to his history. He wasn't sure if she'd look at the furniture he and Sara had lovingly chosen for Charlie and feel like he was pushing the stuff on her for his own nostalgia's sake. That wasn't it at all. Though he was nostalgic about Charlie's baby things, it was more about including her in something she hadn't been a part of before. He'd been a father once, and while it might be easy for someone else to forget that, having lost that child was a part of who he was.

He should talk to her about Charlie – he never really had. It hadn't been important to talk to her about it until he'd discovered she was his second chance. That she was carrying his next son or daughter. He smiled. He'd thought about this scenario many times, though usually they'd won the war and he'd retired and they'd gotten married... It was like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on him when he remembered that what they were going through was hardly the idealized version he'd imagined.

Sam was being forced to choose between him and the most exciting aspect of her career and there was no guarantee she was going to choose him. Sure, what had happened between them had been explosive, and he'd known, always known, they were going to be good together. But being good together didn't mean anything when confronted with an incredible life choice.

He thought about what would happen if she didn't choose him. He was positive he'd still have access to the baby. Sam wasn't the kind of woman who would limit his access. But would he be happy with that? No. He wouldn't be. He wanted her and the baby. He wanted it badly. Which was why he couldn't talk to her about it. Because he needed her to make the decision for herself. It was too important and he wouldn't be the reason she woke up one day unhappy. He couldn't be.

He wondered if he should wait until she made up her mind to offer Charlie's baby things. It might put pressure on her to choose him before she was ready. Before she was sure. Because Sam was a strong person but she was also sentimental. While he didn't know how the things would make her feel, he did know they'd make her feel strongly.

He covered the items back over with the sheets and backed out to the ladder, turned off the lamp and climbed back down. Seeing those things had hurt, had made him think, had made him realize he was at her mercy and there was nothing he could do but wait.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"How're you feeling?" Janet wanted to know.

"Fine. And Doctor Aylor says the baby and I are both doing fine, too. She did an ultrasound after all, even though it's a little soon, but she agrees with your timing and I'm now almost fifteen weeks."

"About that..."

Sam knew the question was coming, and she wanted to be straight with her friend. "About the timing?"

"Sort of. You know who the father is?"

Sam grimaced at the idea she wouldn't. And then again at the thought that where she was, she very well might have ended up this way not knowing. "Yes, Janet."

"It's Colonel O'Neill's, isn't it?" the doctor asked in a rushed breath. But it wasn't really a question. If anything, it sounded like a mild accusation.

"Yes."

Janet sighed, a little sadly. "I thought so."

"It's okay," Sam rushed to reassure her friend. "No this isn't the way I'd have planned it, and no, I still don't have any idea what I'm going to do, but it's okay. It's... I trust Jack," she deliberately chose to use his first name.

Janet nodded. "But this means you're off SG-1." Janet had the same note of sadness in her voice that Sam felt inside her and she loved her friend for caring so much.

"Yeah. And now I have to decide if I want to go back on a gate team after the baby's born, if and when a spot opens up, or if I want to stick with the science department."

"But if you were on a gate team you and Colonel O'Neill couldn't-"

"Yeah," Sam cut her off.

"Oh, honey."

Sam held up a forestalling hand, her pregnancy hormones wouldn't allow her to hear that soft, sorry tone without tearing up.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet."

"You and the colonel," Janet said carefully, "you have something special."

"That apparently the entire world could see," Sam said with exasperation.

"That sort of synchronicity doesn't go unnoticed, Sam."

"I guess not."

"Are you really considering staying on a gate team?"

"I don't know," Sam confessed. "Jack told me to be really sure what I wanted before I made a decision. I feel a little like he's pushing me  _towards_  a gate team."

"He knows how much it means to you."

"But I have other things to consider now. Could I even keep going through the gate if I had a child? Knowing the child's father was going through the gate, too? How reckless is that? Anything could happen out there."

"Why don't you think less about what you should do and more about what you want to do?"

"If I had to decide right now," Sam confessed, "I'd choose Jack."

"You could give up gate travel just like that?"

"It wouldn't be easy, but yes."

"But you can't tell him that?"

"I'm not sure when to make a decision. He's been adamant about me taking my time. Any time I've brought it up he's told me to be sure."

"Are you sure?"

"I think I am, every time it's brought up I think  _this is the time I'm going to tell him,_ but then he tells me to be sure and it makes me wonder if I am. So I start thinking about it all over again. I'm getting nowhere."

"You have to tell him, Sam."

"Easy for you to say. He doesn't keep shutting you down."

"You think he doesn't want to be with you," her friend suddenly realized.

"Maybe that's why he keeps putting it off."

"Oh, I don't think that's true. I think he's scared you're going to change your mind later and then he'll have a taste of what he's always wanted."

"We've already had a taste, Janet, that's part of the problem."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It took him a couple of weeks, but he was finally able to bring up the things in the attic. "There's something I want to talk to you about." He'd brought her Chinese food for dinner now that it finally sat right again, and he figured it was as good a time as any to bring up the furniture.

"Okay," she said gamely.

"It's about some things I have from when Charlie was a baby."

The smile that had played around her mouth and eyes for the entirety of their dinner fell off her face. "Oh. Okay."

"I have some things... His crib, a changing table, a rocking chair, and I was thinking... maybe you'd... that maybe the baby could..." he found he didn't quite know what to say.

She reached across the kitchen island where they were sitting and covered his hand with her own. "Yes. If that's what you want. If it's not too hard, or too much, then yes."

He exhaled, hadn't realized how much he had wanted her to say yes to his offering.

"I can bring the things over, whenever you're ready."

She screwed up her face. "I still haven't decided on a room for the baby. And... are you sure you don't want to keep those things at your place?"

Her question hit him right in the solar plexus. Separate rooms for the baby. He hadn't considered she'd decided they'd need them. He must have looked stricken. And she held up a hand. "Wait, I didn't mean that the way it came out. I  _meant_  that we don't know what's happening yet, are you sure you don't want to leave the things where they are until we know?"

He took a few careful, deep breaths, calmed his racing heart. "Yeah," he said gruffly, "we can wait. A while." He added emphasis to 'while' in hopes she'd understand what it was costing him to give her the space to make the decision. And to, in his own way, let her know he was ready to hear her decision, after weeks of shutting her down.

"I'd like to use Charlie's things," she said with feeling. "It's a very sweet thing for you to offer."

"That's my kid in there," he said gesturing vaguely at her.

"Yeah," she said with an almost sappy smile he didn't want to read too much into, "it is."


	18. Chapter 17

She stepped out of the shower and caught her reflection in the steamed up mirror. Finally, she couldn't hide from herself anymore. She looked pregnant. She wiped down the mirror with a hand towel and looked at herself through the streaks. She turned first one way then the other, marveling at the way her belly protruded. At first it had looked like little more than she'd overindulged at dinner, or perhaps had put on a little weight. But now, now it looked like an actual pregnant belly.

She wandered naked and dripping into her bedroom, her head lost in the thoughts of her new physique. She grabbed a towel out of the laundry basket and gave herself a perfunctory dry, her hands lingering on the swell of her belly then again at the weight of her breasts. No, there was no denying pregnancy at sixteen weeks.

She grabbed a pair or stretchy yoga pants and found an oversized t-shirt. Soon, she'd have to buy new clothes and would even have to switch to maternity uniforms.  _That_ was a change she wasn't looking forward to. Maternity civilian clothes were at least... attractive. She pulled on her lounge wear and was scrubbing the towel through her wet hair when her doorbell rang. She looked down at herself in her sloppy clothes, sans underwear and contemplated dressing further when the doorbell rang again.

She sighed. Whoever it was was impatient. She took a moment to run a comb through her hair and then went to answer the door. Through the frosted glass she could see only the dark outline of someone tall. She pulled open the door and was confronted with...

"Jack," she said with surprise.

He gave her a once over that made her acutely aware she wasn't wearing a bra. She'd been scrutinized by him before, naked, and it felt much the same.

"Sam," he said lowly in that voice he'd used when they were in bed together. It made her shiver.

They stood there, him on the outside, her on the inside, looking at one another for a long moment.

"I thought we could talk," he finally said after shaking his head.

"Oh. Sure," she said. "Come in."

He stepped inside and the heavy sound of his boots on her floor made her insides go liquid. She liked the sound of him in her house. She turned, let him close himself in and led him into the living room. She thought about excusing herself to change and then remembered the way he looked at her and changed her mind. It might not be nice but it felt good.

She settled herself into one corner of the couch. He walked through the living room into her kitchen and liberated a beer from her fridge. "You want anything?"

She shook her head, he shrugged, then he sat himself down in the other corner of the couch. "You wanted to talk?"

"We haven't talked much about... you know. And it's been on my mind."

"Mine too."

"I bet."

"You know, the baby can hear our voices now," she said idly.

"So... what? Be careful what we say?"

"Do we need to be?"

"Careful? I don't know. Do we?"

She shook her head slowly.

"Good." He picked at the corner of the label on his bottle. "So. We're having a baby."

She grinned at him a little. "Looks that way."

"You sure you're okay with this?"

"It's a little late to be asking that now, isn't it?"

"Hell, Carter, I dunno." He took a long pull of his beer then made a face. "I feel like this is all happening and I'm standing on the sidelines watching."

"You went to the last sonogram," she pointed out.

"No, I know. I'm not saying you're leaving me out, it's just... this isn't how I pictured this, you know?"

She could have asked him what he meant, or if he meant he'd pictured them together, and pregnant, but she knew the answer. She'd pictured life with him, too. Granted, her imaginations rarely included kids, but she'd gone there a time or two. "I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing this alone."

"You don't have to, you know. Even if we're not... you know... you don't have to do any of this alone. I want to be a part of it. All of it."

"Well, you missed most of the fun first trimester stuff."

"I dunno," he said, "you did threaten to throw up on me a couple of times."

"I could have followed through with that, too."

"I don't doubt it," he said with a grin. Then the grin slid off his face. "It's just... you're over here. And I'm," he gestured long distance, "over there. And it feels like we're not in this together."

"It does feel that way, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he said softly.

"I don't mean to exclude you. I don't  _want_  to exclude you. But it's hard on base and-"

"I'm not talking about on base."

"We could spend more time together," she offered.

"I'd like that. But I don't want to pressure you."

"To make a decision?"

He nodded.

But that was the thing. She was ready to be pressured. "How about we say I make a decision before the next sonogram? We've both waited long enough."

"Sam..."

"No, really. You wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to make my decision and I wanted to give it the thought you asked me to. It was really easy, you were right, to be scared, alone, newly pregnant, to say I chose you. I understood why you wanted me to wait. And when I tell you I've made my decision, I want you to believe me."

"No matter what you choose."

"Right."

"You know I'll support you, and the baby, no matter what you decide."

She reached out for his hand and he gave it to her. "I know that. And between now and then we'll spend more time together, so neither one of us feels like we're going through this alone?"

"I like the sound of that."

"Me too."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The thing about spending more time together, was that eventually he saw her in clothing that really accentuated her pregnant physique. He'd be lying if he said it didn't do funny things to his insides to see her growing with his child inside her. He'd never really thought himself to be a sappy kind of guy, but he remembered, even, with Sara how he'd responded to her pregnant body and he had to admit that whatever biological reaction came with watching a woman ripen with whatever, well, he had it. Not that any pregnant woman did it for him, but when it was his, well, the reaction was strong.

The outfit that really got him was the stretchy black pants with the tight-fitting tank top, the big fluffy socks, and her hair wet from the shower... She was... unselfconscious in her pregnancy and he really, really liked that she didn't try to hide it from him. She didn't really try to hide it at all, but her work clothes did a pretty good job of keeping the rumor mill at bay. Not that he wasn't primed to deal with it. Part of him was ready to jump into action as soon as someone came up with the idea that she was pregnant and it was his. But if people were talking, they were doing it quietly.

She stood in the kitchen cooking something that approximated dinner – they'd both long since discovered he was the better cook – and it gave him the perfect opportunity to study her. He liked the roundness of her small belly, the heavy weight of her breasts even if she did wear a bra tonight.

"You look good," he told her while she chopped onions.

"Yeah?" she said with a small smile.

He grinned at her. "Real good."

"Got a thing for pregnant ladies?"

"Not all of 'em."

She blushed. She looked pretty when she blushed, with her damp hair tucked behind her ears. He liked the easy way she had about her. He liked that when she said they'd spend more time together she'd clearly meant it, and that she didn't feel the need to put up walls between them. She just let him into her life and it felt right.

It made him think about her choices. She kept giving him indications that she was choosing him over gate travel and while he liked that, a lot, he worried about her giving up something that had been so important to her. Something she was so perfectly suited to. It hurt him that he still got to live their dream while she'd be sitting at home. It hurt him that she'd spend more time with their child. He'd already been a father who was away a lot. He knew what that felt like – to miss the firsts – and he wasn't sure he had it in him to miss those things again.

It would be different this time. He was rarely away for more than a few days at a time. But this many years into the program they were gone more than they were home. A few days each week usually, and he wondered if he'd still be missing the important stuff. Could he be the man she needed? The father their child needed? Or would she eventually grow tired of being with someone who was gone so much?

It helped that she understood the nature of the work, that she'd lived it herself. It helped that she wasn't the kind of woman to begrudge him the time he'd spend away. But not begrudging and being able to deal with were two different things. He'd spend half his time away leaving her with an infant, then a toddler. Those were not easy times. Not that he'd been around for much of either of Charlie's but he still remembered the stress and struggle that came with babies.

He remembered the look in Sara's eyes when it all got to be too much, and Sara was the kind of woman to ask for help. Sam wasn't. Would she eventually come to resent him?

"Does it bother you that I'll be off world so much?"

"After the baby comes?" Their synchronicity constantly surprised him.

He nodded.

She shook her head. "It's your job. We'll be okay."

"You're not nervous?"

"Of course I'm nervous. I've never even babysat for an infant. But people have been keeping babies alive for a long time." But she didn't look completely sure, even if her voice was strong and steady.

"Are you telling me what you think I want to hear?"

"Maybe a little," she said and ducked her head the way she did when her emotions got the better of her.

He walked around the kitchen island and lifted her head with a finger under her chin. There were tears in her eyes. "It's going to be okay."

"I know that," she said and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "I really do know that."

"So why the tears?"

"Because it seems like so much. I don't want to do something wrong. I don't want to disappoint you," she said the last so quietly he almost didn't hear her.

"You've never disappointed me, not even one day, Sam."

"This is different. This is your baby. What if I'm not good enough?"

He sighed and gathered her into his arms, felt the gentle push of her belly between them. "You've never been not good enough for something a single day in your life."

"You don't know that," she sniffled against his shoulder.

"I know  _you."_

"You're not worried?"

"About you? Not at all."

"About being gone so much, about leaving the baby alone with me?"

"About being gone so much? Yeah. But about leaving the baby with you? Not at all."

He hoped she was referring to just the times he was off world, because if she did end up choosing gate travel then the baby would live with her full time, or so he supposed. They hadn't really talked about it. He was avoiding talking about it until she told him what choice she'd made. It took everything in him not to ask her to make the choice right that moment. They'd agreed that they'd talk before the next ultrasound which was three weeks away. She still had time and damn it, he was going to give it to her. Not that he'd have reservations about leaving the baby with her if she  _did_ choose gate travel. It was just... he wanted them to be a family. This was his second chance and he wanted to get it right.

He held her for a while longer, felt the way her arms felt wrapped around him, the way she was pressed so tightly to the front of him that he could feel every breath. Finally she took a deep breath, once her emotions were completely under control, and took a step back from him.

"Thank you."

"For what?" he wanted to know.

"For being here."

"I wouldn't be anywhere else."

Couldn't be.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It had been a long day at the mountain. SG-13 had been trapped off world with a defective DHD and it had been up to Sam to figure out how to get them home. Her day, his too, had started at zero four hundred and it was well after twenty hundred when they both pulled into her driveway.

"You really don't need to stay," she said to him when he got out of his truck.

"We had plans tonight," he said simply.

"To eat dinner. We ate on base."

"You ate half a chicken salad sandwich. That's not dinner."

"I'm too tired to cook," she said and she did look rather wilted.

He shrugged, "Okay, I'll cook."

"I don't think I have anything worth cooking."

"I'll be the judge of that." He took her by the shoulders and turned her towards the house and started walking her forward. "You go take a hot shower."

"I don't want to move anymore. I just want to sit on the couch."

"Ah, ah, ah, shower. Then dinner."

She sighed heavily, "Yes, sir."

He smiled a little. At her front door he waited while she unlocked it then he pushed her off towards her bedroom. "There'll be something to eat by the time you make it back out."

"Thank you," she said and she really did sound grateful.

While she went off to shower he went through her fridge until he found something that could be scraped together resembling a healthy dinner. By the time she returned he'd made salads in her cereal bowls and had pork chops on the stove and potatoes and vegetables almost ready to be served.

"Mmm," she said, walking in in her comfy clothes, "it smells good in here."

He gave her his full attention and was once again struck by how good she looked. He thought about telling her, but he was afraid she'd think he was after something. And while he wouldn't turn a little  _something_  down, that wasn't why he was there. Besides, if they were going to have sex again, it would be as part of their new relationship and not because he couldn't keep it in his pants and she succumbed to the pregnancy hormones that made her consistently look at him like he was something delicious. Yeah, he'd noticed.

"Good," he said, "it's almost ready. Here, have a salad." He sat her down at the kitchen island and put a bowl of salad in front of her.

"I didn't smell salad," she pouted. He checked the urge to kiss the pout off her face.

"Maybe not, but if you don't eat those vegetables they're going to become a science experiment in your fridge."

She sighed dramatically, but tucked in with a small smile.

Soon, he served up their dinners and they ate in a companionable silence. He watched as she shifted on her stool uncomfortably. "You okay?"

"My back. It's been bothering me all day."

"Did you take something?"

"Tylenol. It's the only thing I have I can take while I'm pregnant."

"Why don't you go get comfortable on the couch. I'll clean up here." She started to protest but he stopped her with, "No. Go. Comfortable."

She gave him a small, relieved smile and went to curl on the couch.

Ten minutes later he joined her and found her still shifting, trying to find a comfortable position.

"Lie down."

"What?"

"Lie down," he said slowly.

She looked at him suspiciously. "Why?"

"I'll rub your back."

"You don't have to do that." The stricken look on her face told him she remembered exactly how they'd ended up in bed together in the mining camp. He remembered too.

"Sam, I can rub your back without it getting awkward, can't I? I mean, hell, you're carrying my baby and we're doing okay with that."

"Are we?" She asked him.

"Definitely."

"You sure?"

"I'm not going to jump you just because you let me put my hands on you. Though, come to think of it, you might be more comfortable sitting up than lying down on your belly." If she looked disappointed he didn't mention it.

She scooted around so that he could sit with her back to him. "You're sure?" she asked again.

He huffed. "I'm sure."

"Okay..." she said and silently pulled her shirt over her head. It left her in a sports bra, showing less of her than he'd seen before, but it gave him the first view of her belly, uncovered, that he'd had. He was transfixed.

"Can you feel the baby move yet?"

"No."

"Soon, maybe."

"You just want to feel the baby move yourself," she said with a smile in her voice.

"Well... yeah," he said seriously.

"I promise I'll tell you when I can."

The promise that he'd be allowed to touch her, whether they were together or not, warmed his insides. "Thank you." He situated himself behind her and put his large, warm hands on the small of her back. She moaned at the contact and it made him shiver with want. He'd heard her make that sound before under very different circumstances.

"Sorry," she said self-consciously.

"It's okay."

He began working his hands over her back in long, fluid strokes until her body rocked under the motion of his hands and he could feel the tightness had left her muscles. But even once she was limber and relaxed he continued, unable to stop once he had his hands on her.

"You know, I thought about you like this."

"In pain?" she asked, confused.

"Pregnant. When we were... you know. I worried you'd end up pregnant and we'd still be stuck there.

"Really? It didn't cross my mind at all. I was thinking of... other things."

He chuckled. "Well, it's not like it stopped me."

"No."

"I miss it sometimes."

She was quiet for long moments. "Me too."

He wanted to say so many other things, but they all boiled down to "pick me" so he stayed quiet and moved his hands over her soft, warm skin and kept taking peeks at her belly over her shoulder.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"We have an ultrasound appointment next week. They should be able to sex the baby," she said as they were sitting on her couch watching some stupid Entertainment news. They weren't really watching TV so much as sitting together, and they needed the excuse of the television and at that hour, there was nothing else on any of the five channels she got. "Are you going to be able to be there?"

"If I'm on world, I'm there."

"So you don't know yet?" She hoped she didn't sound as forlorn as she thought she might.

Apparently she did because he reached over and patted her shoulder. "Not yet. I'll know tomorrow morning."

"I hope you can be."

"Me too."

"Do you have a preference?"

The knee that had been bouncing went instantly still. "Um... no, I don't guess so," he said carefully.

She turned to him, got up on her knees on the couch to face him. "I'm sorry, I didn't think."

"Didn't think about what?"

She was sure his answer had something to do with having lost a son. Maybe he wanted a daughter but didn't want to say that to her just in case it was a boy. "I shouldn't have asked, I'm sorry."

"Sam, it's fine."

But it didn't look fine. He was studiously paying attention to the stupid Entertainment news.

"Look at me, Jack."

He took a careful breath and turned to her. "What?"

"What if we're having a boy? Is that going to be okay?"

His eyes looked pained. "We don't get to pick."

"That isn't what I asked you."

"This baby has nothing to do with Charlie," he said quietly.

"I know that."

"So if we have a boy, it's fine." But he wasn't looking her in the eye.

"It's okay to want a girl, I mean, what's done is done, but I'd understand if you'd rather have a girl."

"Do we have to talk about this now?" He asked painfully.

She reached out and put a hand on his chest. "No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"We were going to have to talk about it sometime," he said pragmatically.

She rubbed the hand on his chest from one side to the other. He grabbed her wrist and before she knew it, he'd hauled her into his lap. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and took long, slow breaths. "I'm the one who's sorry," he said against her skin.

She wound her arms around him. "It was bound to be a painful conversation."

"It's okay if we have a boy."

"Well that's... good."

"But I really do want a girl," he said with a wry chuckle. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"Of course not." She ran her hand over his soft hair.

They sat there, holding on to one another, stroking each other softly, calming frayed nerves. She felt him begin to relax and his gentle stroking turned into something else entirely.

His hands began to wander. She did nothing to stop him. Soon, his lips were her on hers and they were kissing hungrily. She mewled into his mouth with want. It felt so good to be pressed up against him. She got her hands underneath his shirt against the warm skin of his back and she wasn't quite sure how it happened, but then she was lifting his t-shirt over his head and putting her lips on his shoulder.

His mouth was on hers, then by her ear, then in her hair, then back to her mouth. He was panting heavily against her and she could feel how he'd grown hard. She shifted until she was straddling his lap and his erection was pressed between her legs.

She reached for the button on his jeans. His hands were in the way and he batted hers aside. He had one hand on her breast and the other down her pants when he suddenly stopped. "I think we probably shouldn't do this until you know what you want."

"I know what I want. I want you."

"I meant for good."

"God, Jack, me too."

He kissed her again, letting his tongue do the talking as it stroked hers with a passion she was begging him to follow through on. "Wait."

She pulled back from him dazed, her lips swollen, her chest heaving. "What?"

"We can't do this until we talk to Hammond. Until you're permanently assigned to the science department."

"What difference does that make?" she asked exasperatedly.

"It'll make a difference to you one day, and I want us both to know we did this right."

"It won't. I'm ready."

He pressed his hips up into her. "Me too. But we need to wait."

She huffed out an irritated breath. "You're going to leave me like this?" She was hot and wet and oh so ready for him.

"Yeah," he said gruffly, "I am. And one day you'll thank me for it. To know we didn't just get caught up in a moment we might regret later..."

She clambered off his lap, his hands dragging out of her pants and from beneath her shirt a making a parody of what they were just doing. "I don't think that's true. But I understand."

"Do you really? Because you look kinda mad."

"I'm aroused, Jack, this is what I look like."

"I've seen you aroused and I've seen you mad. This is more mad."

"I'll get over it."

"I'm sorry, but I think this is the right thing to do."

She took a couple of deep, cleansing breaths until her head cooled a little. She could finally see things from his perspective. "Yeah. Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah. But next time we start this, Jack, we're damn well going to finish it."


	19. Chapter 18

The night before she planned to talk to General Hammond she started feeling like she was coming down with something. The next morning, she woke up with the worst head cold she could remember having. Her throat hurt, her sinuses were painful, she alternated between coughing and sneezing and she was fairly certain all she wanted to do was go back to bed. Instead, she dosed with Janet and Doctor Aylor's pregnancy-approved cold medicine and went in to see the General. This was one thing she wasn't going to put off.

At the base, she knocked on his door, despite having an appointment to see him.

"Major Carter," General Hammond said waiving her into a seat. "What can I do for you?"

"I've come to tell you I've made a decision, sir."

"Oh?"

She took a deep breath, thanked goodness for the cold medicine, and steeled herself for his reaction, whatever it may be. "I've decided I'd like to take you up on your offer of a permanent place in the science department."

A smile bloomed across his face. "I'm happy to hear that."

"You are?"

"Of course, Major. You just told me I get to keep the best mind on this base out of regular harm's way."

"But sir, you could have taken me off a front line team at any time..."

"You were valuable as part of SG-1 as well. It doesn't matter where you serve, you'll be an integral part of the team, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was happy to hear you were choosing a path a little less risky. Especially now that you have that baby on the way."

"Many of the members of the gate teams have children," she pointed out.

"But none of them have two parents on gate teams. From a purely personal perspective, mind you, I think this is a good decision."

"Well, sir, the decision was made for several reasons, not the least of which was that it allows me to pursue a relationship with the father of my child."

"Ah," the General said knowingly, "I see."

"Not that other considerations didn't factor in."

"I can imagine." He leaned forward in his chair. "You're sure about your decision? You're not going to regret it if things don't work out between you and Colonel O'Neill?"

It surprised her to hear him ask such a personal question, but she supposed he wanted to be sure. "As I mentioned, that's not the only reason. I'll admit the thought of both Jack – Colonel O'Neill, that is – and me traveling through the gate and leaving the baby behind was difficult to imagine. It didn't feel like the best course of action.

"I will," she continued, "of course, miss gate travel."

"Well, it's not as if you'll never go through the gate again. You just won't be a part of a front line team. You'll be utilized on an as-needed basis, and I'll do my best, though I can't make any guarantees, to make sure you and Colonel O'Neill aren't off-world at the same time. However, if a crisis crops up, you may need to make arrangements."

"Yes, sir," she said but inside she was doing jumping jacks. She'd considered there might be times she'd still have to go off world, but to hear the General say it made her feel quite a bit better. It was tough enough to give up regular gate travel even for all the right reasons, but to give it up as something she'd never do again would be devastating.

"What are your plans in the event of a crisis?"

"Truthfully, sir, we haven't yet discussed it. As you're aware, neither of us have family in the area."

"You'll need to make a care plan."

"Yes, sir."

"I feel like I'm telling you things you already know, Major Carter," he said with a small smile.

"Janet and I have talked about some of the things necessary when you have a child and may have to travel off world."

"That's good to hear." He cleared his throat. "On a more personal note, I'd like to say, while I'm sorry you found yourself in the position to make this difficult decision, I'm glad you and Jack are able to make something good out of it. I wasn't sure how things were going to play out after the Zatarc tests, but you two were consummate professionals. Finer officers I haven't seen."

She blushed. "Thank you, sir."

"I appreciate your dedication to your duty and your professionalism. You two didn't make my life easy but you certainly could have made it harder."

That caused her to grin a little, "Yes, sir."

"Now," he said, leaning forward in his chair. "I've got three meetings back to back."

She stood, effectively dismissed, "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." She gave him a smile, stood up straight then turned on her heels and left his office.

She let out a figurative breath she hadn't realized she was holding as she walked back to her lab. That had gone very well. Not that she'd been worried. The General had never given her any reason to worry about talking to him, especially not after the way he'd reacted when she'd had to tell him she was pregnant with her CO's baby. If he was going to be a hardass, that would have been the time. But he wasn't. He was his usual mild-mannered self. Still, she'd been a little nervous about telling him she wanted permanent reassignment. It seemed like a very big deal. And then to discover her choice had made him happy, well, she couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

In her lab she sat down to consider what her life might look like now that she was no longer a member of a gate team. She'd had a taste of the life since she'd been pregnant and, while she did miss going through the gate every week, she also rather enjoyed spending her evenings at home with Jack and was looking forward to what was to come.

She sat back in her chair and woke up her computer. With a smile, she went back to work.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As it turned out, Jack was off world for the all-important gender sonogram. He'd been so excited to be a part of everything and it was difficult for her when he had to miss out because of his responsibilities to the program. He'd apologized, profusely, like he was letting her down but she could tell he was angry at the circumstances that were taking him off world – a rock hunting expedition that Daniel had asked for more than three months previous had finally come up on the rotation. Apparently, he'd attempted to get out of it but had been reminded by General Hammond that he was the leader of SG-1 and it was his responsibility to actually  _lead_ his team.

Sam was glad she hadn't witnessed the kerfuffle.

It hadn't helped that they'd finally filled Sam's position on the team with a Captain by the name of MacIntyre who seemed intimidated by both Jack and Teal'c. Those two were going to chew him up and spit him out. Jack complained about the kid for half an hour over dinner the night before the mission until Sam had reminded him that he'd barely even met the guy and thirty was hardly a kid. Jack had blustered but finally had agreed to give MacIntyre a fair chance.

Sam wasn't holding her breath.

So, she was alone in the room as the ultrasound tech moved the wand through the gel on her belly looking for the best angled pictures of the baby.

"Do you want to know the sex?" the tech finally asked.

Sam went giddy at the prospect. She wanted to know. But then it occurred to her, there was still a way for her and Jack to find out together.

She asked the ultrasound tech to write the gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope so she could open it with the baby's military father later when he returned from his... deployment. She could tell the technician found the notion rather more romantic than it was. In actuality, it was strategic. Jack had been in a hell of a mood since he'd discovered he wasn't going to be there to find out the sex and knowing she'd waited for him would smooth a lot of his ruffled feathers. He wasn't a complicated man.

Sam left the appointment with her envelope gripped tightly in her hand. She was surprised she wasn't even tempted to peek.

Until, that is, the next day when he'd been delayed off world for an additional twenty four hours because Daniel had actually found what he was looking for. She was tempted by the envelope at that point and started wondering if she could just open it and then smooth Jack's ruffled feathers with the sex they hadn't had yet, but she was under the weather with a head cold that seemed to be migrating to her chest and she didn't want their first time together at home to be mucus-laced.

So that was out.

When he finally did return home he came straight to her house at her request. He walked in the door looking tired.

"Long mission?"

"Lots of rocks," he confirmed with a nod.

"And how's MacIntyre?"

"Kid's got jokes," Jack said with a scowl that Sam read as mild irritation that would turn into a kind of like. Eventually.

She sat him down on the couch with a bowl of spaghetti and a beer and sat next to him with the envelope in her hands. She allowed him three bites before she brought it up.

"I had the ultrasound while you were gone."

"Shit, Sam," he said chagrined, "I should have asked."

She waved him off, unconcerned. "It's fine. But in this envelope is the sex of the baby. Do you want to know?"

A smiled bloomed across his face. "Hell yeah," and he put his beer on the coffee table to reach for the envelope.

She pulled it out of his reach. "Wait."

He looked at her confused. "What?"

"What if you don't like what it says?"

"It's either going to say boy or girl, right?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yeah."

"Then I'm going to like what it says."

"Okay."

She handed the envelope over. He took it then set down his bowl of spaghetti so he could tear into it carefully with two hands. He took a deep breath and then pulled out the piece of paper.

He didn't say anything as he read it, he just breathed slowly. Then, he met her eyes.

"Well?" She was dying to know.

A grin spread across his face. "Boy."

It hit her in the solar plexus, but he looked happy. "A boy?"

"Yep."

"You sure you're okay with that?"

"Sam, it's not like I have much choice."

"That's not what I asked you. Are you going to be okay having a boy?"

He leaned towards her, took her face between his hands, pressing the paper against one of her cheeks. "I'm fine." He kissed her mouth gently. "Maybe... maybe it's time we talked about Charlie."

She exhaled slowly. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."

Jack picked up his bottle of beer, spaghetti forgotten on the table, and started talking.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Once she was feeling better it was like all bets were off. Her hormones, which had been in overdrive anyway, were ramped up to a point that he wouldn't have been able to resist even if he had been a saint.

She kissed him with wild abandon one Friday night when he was finally back on world as soon as he'd answered his door to find her standing on his front steps with an overnight bag thrown over her shoulder.

"So I take it you're staying the night," he said when he'd wrenched his mouth free from hers.

"You're not due back on base until Monday," she said before capturing his lips for another searing kiss. She broke free, "I'm not planning to leave until then."

"Barring a gate emergency," he said, grinning against her mouth.

"Screw the gate."

He hauled her all the way into his house, maneuvered her around the door and then backed her into it. She was panting, her chest heaving, and her skin was flushed a delicious looking pink that begged his tongue to trace along the skin of her neck. She purred under his tongue.

"I've been better for four days," she said petulantly.

He'd been off world for all of them. With him back at the helm, SG-1 was on a weekly mission rotation that was punishing when you had a pregnant woman at home waiting on you. "I'm glad you're feeling better," he said trailing his hand along the curves of her body.

She arched into him. "Me too."

"It's been too long," she said before gasping when his tongue ran over a sensitive place below her ear.

"Four months." Give or take. He'd been counting.

"Take me to bed, Jack."

He pulled back from her and pointed her in the direction of his bedroom, giving her an impatient little push. She grinned at him over her shoulder and proceeded to saunter down his hallway. She was a siren in blue jeans and he couldn't take his eyes off her ass. Until she got to his bedroom door and turned around to face him. She looked ripe and delicious leaning against the door frame with a come hither look in her eyes. He couldn't wait to get her out of her clothes.

His hands were already on the hem of her shirt as he backed her into the room. He pulled her shirt over her head. He dropped one hand to a breast and the other to the sensitive skin of her belly. He caressed her, running his fingers over the edge of her bra and around her belly button. She whimpered when he dropped his head to lick a path from one breast to the other.

He couldn't get enough of her. He felt frenzied as he reached behind her to unhook her bra. Their hands tangled together and he pushed her fingers out of the way. He freed the clasp and she was shrugging out of the garment before he could pull it away from her body.

He remembered her breasts. The freckles in her cleavage, the blush pink nipples, the way the heavy weight of them made them cup at the bottom. But they were fuller now, a map of bluish veins marking her pale, creamy flesh and it made him drop his eyes to her belly – round and protruding, covered partially by the stretchy material of the waistband of her maternity jeans. She was so clearly pregnant and it was his.

A surge of arousal swept through him, settling in his groin. He thanked all things good for his baggy pants. He wanted to say something to her about how he'd done this to her, but it all sounded like a bad cliché in his head. He kissed her, her open, panting mouth calling to him. He stroked her tongue with his, felt the ridges of her teeth, liked at her lips. With his hands on her hips he felt her trembling at the assault on her mouth. Her breasts were heavy between them, her nipples dragging across the cloth of his t-shirt.

He fingered the waistband of her pants as he kissed her. She shimmied when he got his fingers between the cloth and her skin and soon he was pushing the fabric down to the floor. She was kicking out of her slip on shoes as the jeans gathered around her ankles and it made her look wanton. He liked the look on her. Soon, she stood in front of him dressed in nothing but a pair of midnight blue lace panties. He took a step back, prepared to look his fill, and he did... until he got to her impatient eyes.

"Jack," she said plaintively and reached for the hem of his t-shirt.

He whipped his shirt over his head and dropped his pants in record time. He wasn't interested in teasing her or himself. He wanted her. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to feel her curves pressed against him. He wanted her panting beneath him.

He shucked his boxers in the next moment, aware of her eyes on him. He was hard and her eyes locked onto his erection and she whimpered. He understood. She reached for her panties but he knocked her hands out of the way. He put a hand between her legs to feel her heat, his fingers pressing against her entrance through the material. She was already wet and ready for him. He dragged the underwear down and off her body, watching as it fell to the floor and she stepped out of them.

He maneuvered her backwards until her knees hit the bed. She sat down with a startled sound but scooted back towards the pillows. He watched her arrange herself on his bed. The visual was so stunning he had to reach down to squeeze his erection for some control.

She spread her legs in welcome and he could see the way she glistened. The thought that she had been ready for him before she'd even walked in his door made him impossibly harder. He teased her about it lightly and she blushed a pretty pink but she spread her legs further in welcome and it wiped the grin right off his face.

He couldn't wait any longer. He situated himself between her legs.

She pulled him up by the hair and shook her head when he offered her his mouth, "Inside me. Now."

He could appreciate her sense of urgency. He felt it too. Not that he didn't want to bury his face in her. He remembered the way she tasted and he wasn't going to let that be his only taste. "Next time."

"You better believe it," she said with a happy sigh.

He pushed into her. She gasped and her eyes fluttered closed. She tightened around him and he groaned. She felt hot, so very hot, and slick and perfect. He pulled out of her and stroked back in, her muscles like a perfect fist around him. He set up a lazy rhythm to torment them both.

She reached down between them and drew slow circles around her clit. He sat back on his heels so he could watch the way he disappeared into her just below her fingers. It was the ultimate visual stimulation, to see her wet and stretched around him, her long delicate fingers glistening in the low light.

He was thrown, for a moment, back to the mining camp, to their little cubicle where everything started, where the light was always low. Saw her beneath him, flat bellied and writhing. He surged inside her. Her pleasurable gasp brought him back to the present. Her now rounded body spread out beneath, her inner walls clutching at him.

He picked up his pace, no longer able to commit to the slow and steady push and pull. He shifted so he was over her, his body curled over hers, his forearms bracketing her head. Using the new position, he into her. Her hands flew to his lower back, holding on as he thrust strongly, he could feel the dampness of one of her hands against his skin and it drove him onwards.

She made a sound he recognized as near completion and he intensified his thrusts. She moaned her pleasure out around his name and a couple of creative curses. Her body began to clutch at him. As he felt her break apart underneath him, he steadied himself and let her body pull him in at will, enjoying the way her muscles rippled around him.

Sam grunted and wrapped her arms around him, stroking his back as he set up a new rhythm. His orgasm tangled up inside and clawed its way up from the base of his spine until he was spilling inside her. He groaned long, and low and she murmured soothing sounds into his ear. His face was tucked into the space between her neck and shoulder and he kissed her there. She giggled a little and flinched away. He filed away her ticklish spot.

When he rolled off her she laid there splayed out, her body on display for him. He remembered her unselfconscious nature and was impressed by it all over again. He checked the urge to crawl beneath the blankets and laid there next to her, aware of the way her eyes wandered over his body.

"We should do that more often," she finally said, sounded sleepy and satiated.

"Don't worry," he said. "We will."


	20. Chapter 19

They couldn't seem to get enough of each other. They spent nearly the entire weekend in bed and then each night, when they returned to his home, or hers, they wound up in each other's arms once more. The sex was, Jack had to say, absolutely incredible. They were explosive together. And if anything, the pregnancy bolstered her rather than holding her back.

It was their last night together before he had to go off-world for several days, with the sweat still cooling on their skin, when she turned in his arms with a gasp and pressed her belly into his side.

"I can feel the baby moving," she said with wonder.

Immediately his hand dropped and she pulled it high and to the side where she apparently felt a little hand or foot.

"Can you feel it?" she asked him excitedly.

But he couldn't. He shook his head no with a slightly sad smile but it was only a small sadness because the look of awe on her face was plenty enough for the moment. He realized that he didn't want to miss anything, including the first moments he could feel his son moving inside her. It was tough enough being gone through the gate so much, leaving her behind.

"Move in," he said abruptly.

"What?" The confused look on her face was adorable.

He kissed the frown off her mouth. "Move. In."

"Here?"

"Well, yeah," he said, shrugging as best he could while lying on his back.

"You want me to live here? With you?"

"Sam, you're going to give me a complex about my house if you keep asking questions like that."

"I  _meant,_ are you sure? That's a big step. Don't you want to be just... together... for a while?"

"We lived together in the mining camp and there we had one room. If we can do that, we can share a house."

"We did it there because we had to. Didn't you ever get tired of me?"

"No," he said simply. "Why? Did you get tired of me?"

"No," she admitted.

"Then why not?" He stroked a hand over her ribs in the way that made her arch pleasurably against him. "Why not move in with me, wake up together every day?"

"Well, even if I move in, we won't be waking up together every day," she said pragmatically. "You're off world too much."

"Is that the hold up? Because what difference does it make if you're waiting for me to come home from here or from your house? Is that is? You'd rather live in your house? Well, okay, but mine's bigger and I own it."

"It's not that. It's just... it seems like such a big step."

"A big step was getting pregnant. This is just... catching up."

She sat up next to him in the bed, folded her legs into a pretzel-like shape. He was momentarily flummoxed by all that naked Carter-skin. "You're sure?"

He was mesmerized by the breasts he'd had his mouth on just minutes before and he had the idle thought that she'd be leaking his come onto the bed sitting there like that and that he'd end up sleeping in the wet spot.

"Jack!" she snapped good naturedly and when he raised his eyes back to her face he saw a smile dancing around her mouth.

"What was the question?"

"Are you sure you want me to move in?"

"I couldn't be more sure."

"Because my lease is month to month."

"Good so you can move quickly. Maybe even while I'm gone."

"You're going to be gone for three days," she said dryly, "I can't possibly pack my entire house in three days."

"We'll hire somebody."

"Oh, we will not."

"Okay, okay. But you can start packing while I'm gone... right?"

"What's your hurry?"

"I don't want to waste any more time," he said quietly. "It's been years of wanting you, a year loving you, and I just don't want to wait anymore."

She leaned forward and stroked a hand over his forehead. "Sometimes you're really very sweet, you know?"

He reached over and put his hand back on her belly. "How far along are you now?"

"Twenty four weeks."

"Over halfway."

"Yep."

"An even better reason to move sooner rather than later. We need to get his room put together."

"We already have the big stuff," she reminded him. "It won't take long."

"Well, we need to choose a room. And paint. There's a lot to do," he said, he hoped in a way that made it sound like she needed to be packing, right that moment. He caressed her belly. "You can really feel him moving in there?"

"Yeah," she said with a soft, sappy grin on her face. "It's weird. But it's nice."

Jack wished he could feel him already, but he knew, from the first go round, that it would be a little while from the time Sam could feel it to the time when he could. So he pulled his hand back to rest on her thigh. He was just thinking of sliding his hand into the shadowed area between her legs when she scrambled over him and off the bed.

"Gotta pee," she said.

He smiled at her back then looked down at the bed where she'd been sitting. Sure enough, wet spot. But that made him smile too, in a different way, and he tucked his hands behind his head and laid back, waiting for her to come back to bed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sam pulled books out of a box and slid them onto his bookshelf. Her astrophysics books now had a home just below the row of medical mystery novels she found out he had a secret love for. She heard him come to the door of the room he declared to be the office and she turned to see him leaning against the door frame with a wooden spoon in his hand.

"I like the look of that," he said and pointed the spoon in the direction of the bookshelf.

She smiled at his sappy sentiment. "Me too."

"You know, you don't have to move over three boxes at a time. We can rent a truck."

"I don't really see the point," she said. "I'm not bringing my furniture and there's so many things it's not worth packing and storing just so I can have them. I'll open the house up and have a yard sale of sorts. Everything still there goes."

"Well, still, we could load everything at once into my truck."

"Am I doing this too slowly for you?" she teased him. He'd given her a long-suffering sigh the first time she showed up with three boxes in her back seat.

 _"How'd you get them in there?"_ he'd wanted to know.

 _"I picked them up and put them in,"_ she'd said, confused by the question.

He'd gone on to tell her she shouldn't be lifting heavy items and yada yada yada, she was packing smaller boxes now. But it meant that it would take more trips to get her settled in.

"No, you're not doing it too slowly, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready for you to be here full time."

"I'm not sure how much more full time I can get, Jack. I sleep here every night."

"The way it should be," he said, sauntering into the room and leaning down to press a kiss to her lips.

"What's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti."

"With mushrooms?" her eyes lit up.

He squinted at her, he hated mushrooms in his spaghetti but they'd become one of her weird pregnancy cravings. "With all the mushrooms you can eat," he said. "On the side."

She smiled. "Fair enough."

He helped her up off the floor. "Come on, you can finish that after dinner."

"I have other plans for after dinner," she purred at him.

He raised an eyebrow, "That so?"

She grinned at him. She'd been insatiable. She'd read that it was part of the second trimester so she was expecting it to go away any time but so far, if anything, her libido had only increased. Jack didn't seem to have any trouble keeping up, though, and for that she was grateful. He also seemed to find her pregnant body extremely erotic, if the way he looked at her and touched her was to be believed. She only hoped he continued to feel that way as she grew larger and larger because she was already feeling fairly massive.

"What's on your mind?" he asked her as he handed her a bowl of spaghetti with mushrooms liberally heaped on top.

"Am I still going to turn you on when I'm huge?"

He looked at her stricken. "Of course."

"Don't say it like that, like it's a foregone conclusion. I'm being serious."

"I am too."

"But I'm going to get... big."

"Yeah. You are. And you're hot, Carter."

She loved it when he said her name like that. The clipped sort of frustrated tone he used and had used on her for years. It made her shudder now because she knew she got to take that Colonel to bed with her.

"But not all pregnant ladies, right?" she asked him, harkening back to an earlier conversation.

"No, definitely not. It's got a lot to do with..." he hesitated. "I did that, okay? I made you look like that. It's... it's a turn on. And look, Daniel would give you some speech about fertility idols or something, but you're just going to have to trust me on this one. You're gorgeous. You're always gorgeous and you're especially gorgeous right now."

"And even when I get bigger?"

"Even then. More then." He took her hand and dragged it down to the fly of his pants. He pressed himself into her hand, half hard already, "Just because we're talking about it. You get it?"

She squeezed him lightly and watched as his eyes slipped closed. She loved teasing him, loved it because she knew she'd be following through. "Yeah, I get it."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They were doing the dishes when suddenly she grabbed his hand out of the dish water and pressed it against her belly. "That was a strong one!"

He concentrated, hoping he'd be able to feel whatever it was she just felt. And then, there it was, a little elbow, hand, or foot square under his hand. Tears sprang to his eyes, he was unprepared for them. He remembered this part, remembered feeling Charlie kicking at his hand through Sara's distended belly and he remembered how excited he'd been. He was excited now. His son was landing one hit after the other.

"I'm glad you got to feel him."

"Me too," he said with a smile, the one he reserved solely for her. He leaned down and put his mouth near Sam's belly. "Take it easy on mom there, kid."

The baby stilled instantly at the sound of Jack's voice. He looked up at Sam, startled, and for confirmation. "You've got a way with him."

"Of course I do," Jack said with false bravado. Because suddenly, he was overrun with the pressures of being a father again. He stood up and turned back to the dishes.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he tried to shake off the feelings he was feeling.

"Jack, don't do that, I can tell something's wrong."

He sighed. "What if I screw this all up?"

"What? You and me? Or him?"

"All of it," he said loudly, splashing in the water. "Him," he said more quietly.

"You're not going to screw him up. Neither one of us are. We're going to make mistakes but he's going to be fine because we're going to love him and because we're responsible adults."

"That wasn't enough last time," he said, his eyes cloudy with tears. He picked up a plate and washed it for something to do with his hands. He felt bad for doing this to her, they'd talked about Charlie already. Objectively, he knew what had happened wasn't exactly his fault. But he had left the gun in a way Charlie could get to it. And for that he'd always feel some guilt. But he'd learned from his mistake, and he'd never leave a gun anywhere the baby might get it. Not even while the baby was too young to get to it. As it was, he'd already taken to locking his handgun away in a heavy gun safe bolted to the floor in his closet.

"It's not going to happen again," she said quietly. She put a hand on his back between his shoulder blades and rubbed gently until he dropped the plate in the sink, turned to her, and gathered her into his arms.

"I know that. I  _know._ But I think about it. All the time."

"You're torturing yourself for no reason. It's  _not_  going to happen again."

He hated feeling so vulnerable, but if he was going to have to be, he wouldn't want to do it in front of anyone but Sam. She had a way of not making him feel bad about it. She just... accepted him the way he was, imperfect, and sometimes not okay with it.

"Maybe I just shouldn't keep a gun in the house."

"That's not practical, and you know it."

"Lots of people live without guns."

"Lots of people aren't us."

He nodded against her head, his five o'clock shadow picking up the hairs at her temple. "I'll be careful, I promise."

"I know you will be. Jack," she said and pulled back from him, "I trust you. I trust you. I don't trust anybody the way I trust  _you._ "

A bit breathlessly in the face of the single most significant thing she could say to him, he said, "I love you."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It only took her three weeks to be moved in completely and she thought that was pretty good. She did end up getting a little help from Jack, Daniel and Teal'c when they'd had a weekend free. But after that she'd had her sort of yard sale and donated what was left over to the local abuse shelter. She was officially done. She'd terminated her lease and everything. She completely, one hundred percent, lived with Jack.

And it made her feel good inside. To be able to call it home gave her a strong sense of satisfaction she hadn't anticipated. In fact, everything about being with Jack gave her a strong sense of satisfaction. It made her wonder why she'd dallied over the decision at all. She knew it was important to him that she gave it the thought it was due, but she should have pushed harder and let him know sooner. She felt bad that she'd let it drag out so long, it felt disingenuous to who they were, that they'd struggle so much to get together when the opportunity was finally presented.

Oh, sure, her career had to change, but it was going to change anyway with the baby coming. The further along she got the easier it was to admit to herself that she couldn't... she wouldn't... submit her child to a life with two parents who were on active gate duty. It was simply too dangerous. And, she was the mother, which meant, no matter what, that baby came first. And she wasn't even upset by it.

She'd feel the occasional pang of loss, but it was almost instantly replaced by something much bigger, much better, a sense of family she hadn't felt in a very long time. Not since, perhaps, her mother had died and her own family had begun to fall apart. It hadn't taken Mark more than a year to leave after their mother's death and her father was constantly busy with his work. It left Sam very much to her own devices and feeling a lot like she was alone.

It made her think about what it might be like to leave her own child behind and found that there was little competition between the gatework and her baby – her baby, not even born yet, was winning hands down. The trouble was, she suspected Jack felt very much the same way. He, however, didn't have the same choices she did. He was needed where he was. It wouldn't be long, though, before he wouldn't be able to pass the necessary physicals and he'd be grounded. But until then, he was the leader of SG-1.

A knock on her lab door startled her. "Hey," he said soothingly when he noticed how she'd jumped.

"You okay?"

"Lost in thought."

"You ready to go home?" He stopped by and asked, even though they still drove two vehicles in. She was supposed to be watching her hours but all she'd really done was back off from seventy hours a week to sixty. And with his on-world/off-world schedule, it just seemed easier to have their own cars.

She flushed. She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't finished the work she'd been doing. "Not quite yet. Maybe... an hour?"

"Like a real hour or a Carter hour?"

She grimaced. "Like an hour hour.

"Because I'm going to go home and cook dinner."

On cue her stomach rumbled. "An hour," she said with a definitive nod.

"Okay. See you there."

He tossed her a wink then sauntered out of her lab. She'd barely gotten back to work when Daniel came barrelling in. "Do you have the artifact from P5C-475?"

She sighed at the interruption. She must have sounded more than a little perturbed because he looked up from the notes in his hands with a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry."

"No," she said, "it's fine. It's," she gestured to the other end of the table, "down there somewhere."

She wasn't going to climb off her stool to find it after all the effort that it took her to get up there in the first place. Twenty seven weeks pregnant was no joke when it came to stools.

"Hey," a grin spread across his face, "I haven't seen you in a while. You look good."

"You see me in the commissary almost every day."

"But I don't really  _look_  at you, you know?"

"Um... thanks."

"I didn't mean anything bad by it," he said with a small frown. "Anyway, you look good."

"I look like a house."

"You don't!" he objected and started, as Jack predicted, talking about fertility idols.

"Please," she held up a hand. "Don't."

He looked chagrined. "Okay. Sorry. But anyway, looking good, mommy."

She grinned at him a little. "Yeah? Thanks."

The truth was, things had been a little strained between them since the news had come out that Sam was pregnant. She wasn't sure why, exactly, but Daniel had been a little distant. She wondered if it had something to do with keeping the pregnancy from him for so long. Or if he was upset that she and Jack had crossed a line that had broken up the team. She thought about asking, but there was a fragile peace between them currently and she didn't want to mess it up.

"Hey," she said, suddenly sure it was a great idea, "you want to come over for dinner this weekend? We could invite Teal'c and Janet... make a thing of it."

"Um..." he faltered but then he visibly shored himself up. "You know what? Sure. I'd like that."

"Good. Maybe we can talk a little. Clear the air."

He seemed to sag a little but he looked determined. "I think I'd like that, too."

"Me too."

He retrieved the device he'd come looking for and headed back out, his head already wrapped back inside the puzzle he'd been working on, so she wasn't insulted when he didn't say goodbye. And, she was looking forward to clearing the air between them over the weekend. She missed her friends.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It turned out that Janet was a little upset that Sam hadn't confided in her and Daniel was upset because he'd suspected she was pregnant for weeks before she and Jack had come out and told him. It took some doing to convince everyone that their reluctance to talk about their time in Trinigoth had nothing to do with the idea they didn't trust their friends and everything to do with the fact that they were just trying to assimilate their feelings for one another. And once that was understood by everyone, except Teal'c who didn't seem to have a problem with any of it, everything was fine.

Sam and Jack were cleaning up after dinner, she was rinsing out beer bottles for the recycling when she had a sudden squeezing feeling across her belly. She gasped and her hand flew to her protruding stomach.

"Jack," she called out to him.

He came in from the living room with a concerned look on his face. "What?"

"I think there's something wrong."


	21. Chapter 20

"A Braxton Hicks contraction," the nurse assured her, "everything looks fine."

She groaned. "I feel so stupid."

"It's not stupid. It's good that you're careful," the nurse soothed.

"Better safe than sorry," Jack told her.

"He's right," the nurse said when Sam didn't look convinced.

Maybe he was, but she still felt stupid. It wasn't like she hadn't been reading the books. She knew what Braxton Hicks contractions were, but she wasn't prepared for how they'd feel – especially once reading that many women never felt them at all. She'd assumed, because she hadn't felt anything yet, that she was one of the woman who wouldn't feel them. How wrong she was!

"You can go home now," the nurse said.

"You're sure everything is fine?" Sam asked once more for good measure.

"Yep," the young woman said. "Right as rain. But I'd take it easy for the rest of the night – stress certainly won't help. Maybe take a nice, hot bath."

"We can do that," Jack said and the young woman gave him a brilliant smile. Sam was used to seeing that look on women's faces when it came to Jack. They all seemed enamored with him.

Sam sat up on the bed and straightened her clothing. "Okay," she said, "I'm ready."

"Thanks for everything," Jack said to the nurse.

"Don't be afraid to come back if anything else out of the ordinary happens," the nurse cautioned Sam, "it really is better to be safe."

"Thank you," Sam said, still slightly embarrassed, but feeling better by the moment.

They drove home in relative silence and, once there, Jack ran her a bath and got her settled in with a glass of juice. "Do you need anything else?"

"Maybe you, in here with me."

He grinned at her and pulled his shirt over his head. "I thought you'd never ask."

While he undressed she let some of the water out of the tub to make room for him. Soon, he was situated behind her, his long legs running the length of the tub and her nestled between them. She could feel his penis against the swell of her backside and she wiggled against him.

"Ah, ah, ah," he cautioned her, "no stress tonight."

"Sex isn't stress. If anything, it's stress relief."

"Still, I don't think we should, not tonight."

She sighed and resigned herself to not getting laid. It would have done wonders for her relaxation, though. Instead, he ran his hands slowly, sensuously over her body. It began to relax her and she let her head fall back on his shoulder. He massaged slow circles over her belly, caressing the sensitive skin. She moaned her pleasure. The warm water, his hands, it really did make for an incredibly relaxing setting.

The water grew cool around them. "You want a shower, to rinse off?" he asked her, lowly in her ear.

She shook her head. There hadn't been any oils or bubbles in the water and she'd taken a shower already before dinner. She felt clean, and warm and loved.

"Thank you for tonight."

"You're welcome."

"I'm sorry I scared you."

"I'm just glad everything is all right."

"Me too."

"I'll try not to do it again."

"The nurse was right. If you're worried, we should get it checked out. I'll drive you to the hospital every night if that's what it takes."

"I don't think it'll come to that," she said with a lazy chuckle.

"C'mon, let's get you to bed."

He got out of the tub first then helped her up. He dried her off with the towel, slowly, thoroughly and then put her into their bed, naked between their cool sheets.

She found she was still latently aroused and, had he not been skittish about it, may have made another move on him. But, as it was, she waited until he climbed into the bed next to her and then curled her body around his. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

From the moment he'd found out he was having another boy he'd been turning over names in his mind. He'd grown up with a name he didn't particularly like and had, as soon as he'd been away, switched to Jack and never looked back. A man's name was important.

And then it occurred to him, his baby could very well have Carter's last name. It wasn't as if they were married and they certainly hadn't talked about it. Being married  _or_  the baby's last name.

He figured the evening was as good a time as any to start talking about baby names. She was over halfway there and he had a feeling it was going to be an ongoing conversation. Except...

"I have an idea, but you don't have to say yes," he said to her one evening as they washed the dinner dishes.

"Okay," she said slowly. "What is it?"

He finished washing the plate in his hands and rinsed it carefully before handing it to her and picking up the next plate in the sink.

"Jack?"

"I'd like the baby's middle name to be Charles," tumbled out of his mouth. It felt silly and sentimental, but he understood why he wanted it. He just didn't know if it would be too macabre for her to deal with.

She was, however, nodding slowly. "Okay," she finally said. "And I'd like the baby's last name to be O'Neill. So now we just need to settle on a first name."

"You sure about that?" he asked her, in reference to the last name. "You don't want to share a last name with the baby?"

"Of course I do," she said with exasperation and then seemed to be waiting for him to catch up.

"Oh." He finally did. "Oh!"

She smiled a little. "Not how I envisioned us having this discussion. But, it's out there now. I think we should get married."

"Think we should or want to?"

"Both? Look, it's not just a matter of wanting to be with you, which you know I do, it's a matter of practicality."

"Which is very romantic," he said dryly, but he was pleased.

"It's easier for everything, if something were to happen to one of us."

"I agree."

"And we've got a child to think about now."

"Sam, I said I agree."

"So we should get married?"

"Yeah. Though, I would have proposed, you know."

"Well, you weren't quick enough," she said with a small, nervous looking smile.

"No, I guess I wasn't," he said with an answering grin. "But I'm glad you know what you want."

He captured her lips with his own and pressed a soft, sweet kiss to her mouth. "I love you, you know that?" he said, matter of factly, and probably with fewer hearts and flowers than she really deserved.

She beamed anyway. "I love you, too."

And just like that they cleared two big hurdles with one jump – maybe in the wrong order, but they'd cleared them nonetheless. He felt... different than he'd felt when he got engaged to Sara. He'd been so nervous when he'd popped the question. He'd had a ring, gotten down on one knee in a restaurant, the whole nine yards. She'd said yes – he was pretty sure she would – and then he spent the rest of the meal with sweaty palms and arrhythmia.

This though, this just felt... right. Like it was the next logical move in a long maze of illogical feelings he'd navigated for his former second in command. "You're not mad I didn't get down on one knee with a ring and give you the whole shebang, are you?" He asked her when they were sitting on the couch watching a hockey game together later.

"Jack, you've got bad knees."

He laughed, the slight tension he was feeling completely dissipated.

"But a ring?"

She shrugged, "As nice as it would be, anything other than a flat wedding band is impractical with my work." He must have stared at her a little too long because she finally looked at him and said, "There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way we got engaged."

"Well, okay then," and they went back to the hockey game.

On the next commercial she turned to him and said, "I like Thomas because Tom is a nice, strong name for a man. Like Jack."

"Thomas Charles O'Neill?"

"Yeah. What do you think?"

"I think if we figured this out in one night, you really are the perfect woman."

"But do you like it?"

"Yeah, I like it."

"Then it's settled."

That and a whole lot more.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Do you want a big wedding?" he asked her one night as they shared a bowl of ice cream after dinner.

She was momentarily struck with the image of herself in a poofy white dress standing in front of hundreds of strangers in a church, and then dancing around the floor in a huge ballroom filled to the brim with people she didn't care about. But... what if that was what he wanted? They'd already spent so much time not talking about what was on their minds that she wasn't even prepared to speculate and decided to just be straight with him. "I really don't."

He gave a relieved-sounding sigh. "So just something..."

"Small. Intimate."

"Just a few of our closest friends?"

She hummed lowly.

"What?"

"Well, what if it was just the two of us?" she asked.

"What? You mean you and me going down to City Hall?" He sounded remarkably excited by the idea and it was nice to know they were on the same page.

"There's no waiting period in El Paso County."

"Know that already, do you?" he asked with a grin.

She blushed. As soon as he'd agreed to getting married she'd called the clerk of court. She wanted to know exactly how it worked in Colorado Springs. She wanted to be married as soon as possible. She didn't want to wait for the baby to arrive. She didn't want to wait to plan a big wedding. She just wanted to go down and stand in front of an official with him, sign a piece of paper, and be his wife.

"So when did you have in mind?"

"Next week? You're not off world at all. And maybe we could get away in the afternoon?"

He reached over and threaded their fingers together, gave her a dazzling smile that said he agreed and said, "Next week, then."

She smiled at him, then leaned over and kissed him, the vanilla ice cream making his mouth sweet and cool.

Later on she'd been lost in thought for a while and when he asked she told him, "It'll make Mark happy we're getting married. He sounded... upset that it happened in this order. But I couldn't very well tell him how it really happened, you know?"

"And so this just makes things easier?"

"Well, yeah, as far as Mark's concerned."

"I'm glad we're getting married, and not because your brother wants us to." he said quietly. "It's important to me."

She linked their hands together. "It's important to me, too." She snuggled into his embrace and drifted easily between sleep and wakefulness as he watched the television.

The next day they went to the jeweler she used to fix her mother's broach when she'd broken it. They looked through ring after ring until they found a matching set that suited both her hand and his in a way that made her stomach flop over with the rightness of seeing the bands on their hands.

"You can't wear it off-," she started then corrected, "when you're in the field, you know. Are you sure you want one at all?" She hoped he would, she liked the idea of him walking around wearing ring, a marker that showed he was taken. It might have been possessive, but she didn't care. She wasn't ashamed of that side of herself.

"Call me old fashioned," he replied, "but a married man wears a ring."

"Well, I think old fashioned would be no ring," she said pragmatically.

Unequivocally he said, "I'm wearing a ring, Sam."

"Okay," she was pleased. She was anxious to see his tanned hand and long, elegant finger with the simple gold band on it. She was excited to slip it into place over his knuckle and know that he was hers, forever. It felt silly and sentimental, but she wanted it.

After they bought the rings, leaving them behind to be sized, they went for lunch together and Sam realized it was the first time they'd ever been out in public together, just the two of them, as a couple.

"This is nice, you know, being out with you, not caring who sees us."

He reached across the table and covered her hand with his own. "It is. I never wanted to hide how I felt about you, but I'd have never jeopardized anything for you."

"I know."

"It was just... safer... to not be alone with you. I was bad at hiding how I felt."

"Not so bad," she said. She remembered times she'd wondered if it was all one sided.

"Well, it was hard."

"For me, too."

"But now we don't have to hide anymore."

"Nope. Because next week you'll be my husband and no one can say anything about it."

"I think there will be some talk on base."

"Let them talk."

"Yeah," he said with a little gruff in his tone. "Let them talk."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They were married by a judge on a Thursday afternoon, just past three o'clock. He was an older gentleman that didn't treat them like they didn't know what they were getting into. They stood there, her dressed in a pretty pink suit and he in grey, and solemnly pledged to love, honor and keep one another. Because it was just the two of them, and they were focused on only each other, it left Jack feeling as if each sentiment was sacred, even if there wasn't a holy man in sight.

After the short ceremony was over, he kissed his wife – and boy was that a word he'd forgotten how much he liked, they signed the certificate and left hand in hand.

In the parking lot by the car he kissed her again, deeply, almost indecently for public. "Well, you're a married woman now," he said to her with a grin as he held open the passenger side door of her car for her. "How's it feel?"

"Fantastic."

He closed her into the car and jogged around to the driver's seat, sliding behind the wheel of her little classic sports car. He loved driving her car, loved that she let him. Loved the way his hands looked on her steering wheel wearing her ring. "And in nine weeks, we'll have a baby."

She looked towards the miniscule backseat and frowned a little but he'd let her come around to the idea that they'd probably want a different car. "It seems so surreal. Like all the things I didn't know I really wanted."

"You're not going to miss the gate?"

"Of course I will, but as General Hammond pointed out, it's not like I'll never go through again, I just won't be on a front-line team."

"I'll worry about you, going through the gate without me." He reached over and threaded their fingers together.

"I can take care of myself, Jack."

"I know," he said quickly. "But I liked being there to watch you do it."

"Things are changing," she said and rubbed her free hand over her distended belly, highlighted attractively by the maternity suit she'd grumbled about buying because when was she ever going to wear it again? He reminded her it was probably less expensive than a wedding dress and she'd acquiesced and bought it. He thought she looked beautiful in it.

They drove along quietly for a while until she asked him, "You're sure it doesn't bother you that I'm going to hyphenate my last names?"

"I told you it didn't."

"But you're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm just happy you're taking my last name at all. You're published under Carter, I'm surprised you'd want to change your name."

"I may not have, if it weren't for the baby."

He thought she sounded a little guilty. He was quick to assuage her fears, "That's okay. Sam, I married you, not your name."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As Sam had worried a little that he would be, Daniel was a little miffed to have not received an invitation to the nuptials. He got over it quickly enough when he realized that no one had been invited and even came around to the way of thinking that perhaps it made the whole thing even more special because it had been just between the two of them. Teal'c, of all people, wanted to throw them a party – the apparent appropriate Jaffa response to a marriage but also likely the product of too much American television – but was outvoted by Janet who said the next thing that happened was a baby shower and she put her foot down on that one. At thirty one weeks pregnant Sam wasn't exactly in a partying mood, but she wasn't going to burst her friend's bubble and it was a very nice gesture.

It took only two days for word to get around that Sam and Jack were both sporting wedding rings, and from there the news they'd married spread like wildfire and the speculation that the baby was his seemed to be more accepted fact than theory. It wasn't as if they hadn't told people, they just hadn't told everyone, and the vine of gossip mongers at the SGC was well grown, much like in any smallish organization where everyone was cooped up together most of the time. It took a couple days more for the rumor mill to die back down but all the scuttlebutt that Sam or Jack caught seemed to be mostly congratulatory, so they hadn't been too concerned about the grapevine anyway.

After an eventful few days, Sam and Jack were curled up on the couch together, sipping at decaf coffee and half watching an old alien invasion b-movie.

"I think it's time we got the baby's room ready."

The hand that had been drawing circles on her shoulder stopped moving. "Then I'll bring the things down from the attic."

"You're sure you want to use them?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

"Yes."

He squeezed her tightly. "Then I'll bring them down tomorrow."

She turned her attention back to the movie, but she wasn't really paying attention. She was too content, too full of love, too... happy, to do anything other than focus on the embrace of her husband.


	22. Chapter 21

Jack tightened the last nut and sat back on his heels to admire his handiwork. Charlie's white crib – soon to be Thomas' crib – looked perfect against the freshly painted pale tan walls of the nursery. There were cutesy animal decals on the walls that Jack was shocked Sam had fallen for in the store, but when he saw the sappy look on her face he'd picked them up and thrown them into the cart on top of the cans of paint.

The changing table, the one that he'd stood at the very first time he'd ever changed a diaper was sitting in the corner, all ready for his new little boy. And the rocking chair sat next to a small table with a dim lamp for late night feeding and cuddling. The brand new dresser and shelves went remarkably well with the older furniture and were already ready to receive tiny clothing and baby paraphernalia that Sam had already started to procure.

He pushed himself up off the floor and stepped over the hammer and wrench he'd been using to assemble the crib.

"Sam? C'mon in here."

She appeared at the door moments later, one hand supporting the small of her back and the other resting on her pregnant belly. He took a moment to just look at her, his wife, the mother of his unborn baby and he felt a tightness in his chest that threatened to choke him up. He beckoned her into the room with a hand and she sidled up next to him, slipping one arm around his waist.

"It looks good," she said.

"Yeah, it really does." He knew he sounded overly sentimental, but the tightness in his chest still hadn't dissipated and he was looking at the things that had already meant so much to him once and now were indicative of his second chance. He figured he'd earned the right to sound sentimental.

Together they turned around the room, each pointing out various features until they ended back up where they started, staring right at the crib. "It's beautiful," Sam said.

"It's simple," he countered, "but yeah, it's beautiful."

She squeezed him with the arm around his waist then turned herself into his body, pressing a kiss against his jaw. Her lips trailed his jawline and then moved up to his lips. She kissed him slow and lazy, her tongue sliding against his. She tangled the fingers of one hand in the soft, short hairs at the nape of his neck and tugged slightly allowing her complete control of the kiss. He sighed against her mouth and she smiled, her lips pressed against his.

He pulled back from her, rested his hands lightly on her hips, his arms bowing out around her belly. "Why don't you try out the chair?"

She gave him an indulgent smile, for she'd already sat in the chair when he'd first brought it down from the attic and had promptly declared it perfect, though he knew there were fancier rockers on the market these days that likely would have been more comfortable. But this one was sentimental and she got that and he loved her for it. Still, she stepped out of his arms and crossed over to the chair, sat down and turned on the little lamp at her elbow.

"Yep, perfect," she said with a happy sigh. She pressed her feet into the floor and set the chair to rocking.

He leaned back on his heels and imagined her there, with their baby in her arms, at her breast, in the middle of the night, the low light bathing the room in a warm glow reminiscent of the place they'd lived together first. It was funny the things that took him back to the mining camp, and they were all good. Not that he'd go back there, but he'd be a fool to think it had been all bad; after all, it had led him to the place he was currently standing – his future baby's room in front of the great love of his life. He gave an internal cringe at the sap-factor of such a thought, but it was true, whether he liked to word it that way or not.

She looked around the room, a small smile playing around her mouth. "I can't believe we'll be bringing our baby home in just eight weeks. It feels like forever – especially as I get bigger – but at the same time... it's so soon. Am I ready?"

Jack leaned a hip against the dresser and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're never really ready," he said with a shrug. "You just do the best you can."

"Well, am I as ready as I can be?"

"You will be after the shower next week." He grinned at her. Janet had planned the shower quickly and the guest list had grown to include most of the women on base. Jack just had to shake his head at that. There were going to be people at the party that Sam barely knew. He thought some of it was that people wanted to find out if the gossip was true. He hoped that most of it, though, had to do with the fact that even though she wasn't well acquainted with all the women on base, that her reputation preceded her and that she was generally well liked. He knew both of those things to be true, so he thought it wasn't too far fetched to believe that was why everyone wanted to attend.

Teal'c, on the other hand, couldn't understand why the men weren't invited to the shower. Jack tried to explain it to him, but in the end the big man wouldn't be dissuaded. That had led to an impromptu mini-shower in their living room the day before where Teal'c and Daniel had, indeed, showered Sam and Thomas with gifts. The toys they'd brought were still in the living room waiting on Sam to put them wherever she thought they'd be best and now that the room was finished, she could put them away.

"How about we go de-baby-fy the living room?"

"What's the point?" she asked. "In just eight short weeks the entire house is going to look like Babies-R-Us exploded in here."

"Ah, yes, but we get to be child-free adults for just a little while longer. We should enjoy it."

A tiny line formed between her eyes. "You're not... you don't regret this... do you?"

He scoffed at her a little. "What, because I just said... about us being kid-free? No, Sam. I don't regret this one bit," he reassured her. "I'm just saying, life is about to get very different. And the way we'll get to enjoy one another will... change." His voice dropped low. "For instances, it might be a while before we've got the time or energy to have s-"

"Jack!" She interrupted with a giggle.

He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Well in that case," she said and pushed herself up out of the rocking chair. "How about we forget the baby stuff in the living room and go to bed?"

Sounded like a great idea to him.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The haul from the baby shower was massive and it took Sam days to get all the little clothes washed and all the toys and other things put away. She looked around the room, though, and saw all the shelves filled, the top of the dresser, the closet, the crib... and it really looked like they were ready to bring home a baby.

She laid a hand over her belly and felt for Thomas' little movements. He was active during the day and quiet during the evenings and at night and she hoped that would be the case once he was born, as well. Though she wasn't going to bet the farm on it or anything.

In the end she was glad that SG-1 had been off-world during the shower because she suspected Teal'c was still a little miffed to not be included. Jack had tried explaining, as had Sam, but the big man seemed... well, he seemed rather excited about the baby and Sam had felt a little bad telling him that showers were usually reserved for women. Not that she'd never heard of a shower where the men were included and not that she'd have minded including Teal'c – or even Daniel and Jack for that matter – but it was easier that they were off world.

Jack was going to be so surprised when he got home and saw that there was very little they'd need to buy before the baby came. Oh, sure, there were some staples that the moms had mentioned. It turned out that had been her favorite part of the shower. Many of the moms gifted things that they'd found to be very useful when their babies were new, but the advice had been invaluable. She felt a little less like she was going in blind, though she found she was a bit more nervous now that she had some idea of what to expect.

She was already exhausted – between the pregnancy itself and thinking about the stories she'd been told of having a newborn in the house, she just couldn't win. So when she was done putting the last of the gifts away she went to lie down in the living room on the couch.

She'd only planned to doze, but she was woken out of a deep sleep by Jack more than three hours after she'd laid down.

"Big day?"

"Big few days," she said with a yawn. "Go look in the baby's room."

He quirked an eyebrow at her but sauntered out of the living room and down the hall. She heard him whistly lowly as she pushed herself off the couch to follow him. She joined him in the doorway.

"I'm not sure there's enough room left in here for the baby," he quipped.

"I think we'll be okay," she answered dryly.

"So, guess what we got to do on our way home from our mission?" He herded her out of the room and down the hall, into the kitchen where he retrieved a beer from the refrigerator.

"I couldn't even venture a guess."

"We stopped by the Land of Light. Said hello to Stellan and Avani."

"Really?!"

"Yep. They've settled in just fine. They invited us for lunch and they've got a real nice set up there. They seem to have adjusted to the level of technology and..."

"And what?"

"Avani's pregnant."

"She is! That's great!"

"Yep." He grinned then took a sip of beer.

"How on Earth did you get the General to sign off on a visit?"

"It wasn't hard. We just made a quick stop between the end of our mission and coming home. Delayed us by... three hours maybe."

"I'm glad to hear they're doing well."

"I was glad to see it. It's one thing to think we did the right thing, but it's better to see the particular fruits of our labors, you know?"

"So, what do they do now?"

"Stellan works on one of the farms. Avani tends to their home. You should see them now that they're not overworked and underfed. They both look really healthy and happy."

"Thank you for thinking to stop and see them. It makes me feel good to know they're doing well."

"It's just... it felt like a loose end."

"It did feel sort of like we'd just dumped them there and forgotten about them."

"I think they were glad to see us, and Avani asked me to tell you that you're welcome to visit whenever you like."

"I think it's going to be a while before I go through the gate. And I'm not sure the General is going to let any of my trips be pure social calls."

"Considering the cost to turn the thing on, I think you're probably right."

"But it would be nice to see her again. I'm glad you got an opportunity to make sure they're doing well."

He expressed similar sentiments then shifted her focus to dinner. They cooked together as they often did and he was setting their plates on the table when his eyes landed on her chest and a wide grin bloomed across his face. "Uh, Sam..." he gestured at her chest.

"What?" she looked down to see a wet spot spreading out over one breast. She gasped. "What on Earth..."

"I think you're leaking," he said in what sounded like an  _I'm being helpful_  tone of voice.

She shot him a glare. "I got that much. I meant, why is it happening now. I thought the baby was supposed to be born first."

She went to the coffee table where she kept her pregnancy books and started flipping through until she found the section she wanted. She read until she got to the part about colostrum and groaned. "Apparently this isn't abnormal."

"So you're just going to spring spontaneous leaks now?"

"Watch it, Jack."

"Hey, I'm not complaining, but I'm pretty sure your body's just told me that parts of you are officially off limits to me for a while."

She frowned. She hadn't thought of that. It was bad enough to leak at the dinner table but to know her husband's access to her breasts had been revoked made her a little sad, though she'd known the day was coming.

"I'm going to change," she told him. But she heard him chuckling as she moved down the hallway. She was glad he was having a good time with this, because it was the last good time he'd be having with her breasts for a while.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She groaned, shifted and pressed a hand to her belly.

"What's the matter?" Jack said, looking over at her from his side of the bed, his place in his book marked with his finger.

"Braxton Hicks contraction."

"Ah," he went back to his book and she, finally, went back to hers as well until twenty minutes later, she shifted again.

"I just can't get comfortable anymore," she groused. She pressed her hand to her belly, grimaced, then moved her hand around to her back.

"Only six weeks left," he said.

"Six very long weeks."

"Your back hurting?"

"A little?"

"Want me to rub it?"

She shook her head, "No. Not that kind of hurt. It kind of comes and goes. I think it's when I move wrong."

Twenty minutes after that they turned out the light and laid down to sleep.

He was woken up by the sound of the toilet flushing and then he heard her voice. "Jack?"

"Yeah?" he called.

"Uh... I think my water just broke."

He sat up in the bed and shook the sleep from his head. "You sure?"

"No. But I think so."

"Okay. So, probably not Braxton Hicks contractions earlier, huh?" Yeah, he'd read the books, too.

"Probably not," she said from the bathroom doorway.

She looked okay. She didn't look like she was stressing out or over worried. As a matter of fact, for a woman who'd been having contractions, she looked rather zen.

"We should call the hospital."

"Yeah." She said, then "Oh," long and low. She pressed a hand to her belly and made a face.

"When was the last one?"

"Hold on," she said and breathed through the contraction which must have been stronger than any she'd felt so far because she seemed a little surprised by it. When it was over – and it didn't take too long, thirty seconds, maybe – she took a few tentative steps into the bedroom. "I think maybe one woke me up. That would have been about ten minutes ago."

"It's a little early, but I think we should call since your water broke."

"Might have broke."

"Okay," he said exasperatedly, "might have. I still think we should call."

He won the little battle, not that she put up much fight, and he called the hospital. As he suspected they might, they told her to come on in. Yeah, it might have been a little early, but better safe than sorry.

On the way to the hospital she fretted, "It's too early for the baby to come."

"Well, maybe," he said, but he tried to sound reassuring when he continued, "but he's decided to come now."

"Aren't you worried?"

He was very worried, but he'd be damned if he'd add that to the list of things  _she_  needed to worry about. "Everything's going to be fine. And if it isn't, we'll deal with it." He hoped he sounded calmer than he felt. Inside he was a jumble of nerves.

Six weeks early. He knew that in two weeks they'd be considered in the clear, but everyone wanted their baby to cook as long as possible right? He went through the books in his head and tried to remember what the possible complications were for a baby born at thirty-four weeks. Underdeveloped respiratory system? And... immune system? Jaundice? He thought there was more, but he had enough to worry about with those three, he figured.

But he wasn't going to worry – not in front of Sam. Not while she had the delivery on the horizon. "How're you feeling?"

"Like somebody put a vice grip on my uterus."

Well, that was descriptive. "How long since the last contraction?"

She looked at the stopwatch as she breathed through the latest contraction. "Seven minutes."

"We're still doing fine. We're only ten minutes from the hospital."

"Drive faster, Jack," she said with a pained sound in her voice that let him know she was worried. Very worried. Probably not that she'd deliver the baby in the truck, because he knew she knew that her labor hadn't progressed that far, but that the baby was coming so early. If her water hadn't broken maybe there was something they could do about it, but even he knew they'd passed the point of no return. The baby was coming and it was coming soon.

He sped up by a couple miles per hour just so she could hear the engine rev, but there was no need to drive unsafely, in the middle of the night, with his laboring wife in the car.

At the hospital, he dropped her at the emergency room doors and went to park the truck. When he met her inside she was panting through a contraction as a nurse stood there with one comforting hand on her arm saying soothing things he couldn't really hear. When the contraction was over the nurse handed Jack a clipboard and told him to fill out the paperwork so Sam could be admitted to labor and delivery.

He filled it out in record time and only had to ask her the answer to six of the questions. He handed over the paperwork and before he knew it, Sam was in a wheelchair and being taken up to the second floor of the hospital. They found a bed ready and waiting for them and Sam was changed and settled in before he'd even had the opportunity to realize he'd forgotten to grab her bag from its place in the hallway. Oops. He pulled out his cell phone to call Daniel to ask him to bring the bag but he saw the time was zero four hundred and decided to wait. It wasn't not like she'd need anything in the bag right away.

After that it was a hurry up and wait game. She was checked several times by the nurses who were monitoring her and the baby very closely. Once she was about halfway dilated and the contractions seemed steady and quick enough, the anesthesiologist had shown up with the epidural. Her contractions were about three minutes apart when Doctor Aylor appeared gloved and gowned and ready. She took up a position at the foot of the bed, between Sam's stirrupped feet, and a nurse appeared to hold Sam's leg and explain to him how he needed to do the same. Before he knew it, she was pushing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Doctor Aylor whisked the baby from between Sam's legs. The cord was cut quickly and the tiny boy was carried off to a corner of the room to be checked and prodded. Sam let her head fall back and her eyes fall closed as Jack wiped the sweat from her brow. Jack was vibrating with tension even as he gently mopped the sweat off her face and hairline.

"Let her do her job, Jack."

A massive, angry sounding cry split the tension in the room. Sam's eyes flew open and she encountered Jack first. He visibly wilted under the relief.

After a few more minutes the nurse brought Thomas over, wrapped in a hospital issue blanket and laid him on Sam's chest. "For an early little guy, he looks great."

Sam's arms immediately came up to cuddle the baby against her and Jack's big palm dwarfed the baby's back, Sam noticed.

"Five pounds, seven ounces," Doctor Aylor answered the unasked question with a small smile. "And aside from a touch of jaundice he looks and sounds perfect. We'll keep him for five days or so though, so we can keep an eye on his immune system."

Sam was relieved. She'd been concerned about lung issues, and if the worst thing they had to consider was that he had an under-developed immune system and a bit of jaundice, well she thought they got out rather lucky.

Sam looked at her son and realized all the pain had been worth it. She'd been glad when the epidural had arrived. Labor was an intense sort of pain that she thought she'd been prepared for after all the injuries she'd sustained over the years. She'd been wrong.

But looking into her son's heavy-lidded greyish-blue eyes it was all worth it. She'd only held him for a couple of moments when he was whisked away again and she was told she had to deliver the placenta. After birthing the baby, though, that turned out to be a relative piece of cake and she wondered if she was still feeling the effects of the epidural or if it really was just that easy.

When she was done, she looked over to see Jack holding Thomas. The look on his face was priceless and she was sure she'd never seen him so completely unguarded. It made tears well up in her eyes. He happened to look at her the moment the tears spilled over her lashes and onto her cheeks.

"Hey," he said softly, "you okay?"

"I'm perfect," she said with a wavering voice. "You look good with him."

"Yeah?"

She just smiled. Jack O'Neill looked just right with a newborn in his arms and it made her ache a little to know that he'd had it once before and it had been ripped away from him. He was the sort of man who should have had several kids and she wondered, idly and momentarily, why he and Sara hadn't had more before Charlie's death.

"You want to hold him?" He asked her.

The nurses were still bustling around and her feet were still in the stirrups but a blanket had been settled over her so she was no longer exposed. She figured she had a few minutes before she'd be moved to another, more comfortable bed and soon they'd be taking the baby to bathe him, so of course she wanted to hold him!

She nodded and Jack leaned over and placed the baby against her chest so gently.

"You want to try to feed him?" One of the nurses asked. With direction, Sam maneuvered her hospital gown out of the way and got the baby latched on and suckling. It was a strange feeling. Strange, but nice. It made her feel powerful, in a way, to be built to do what she'd spent the morning doing. Powerful in a way she'd never felt before and it was nice to know that things could change so much and yet still feel similarly enough.

By the time she was moved into the room she'd stay in, the morning had progressed to a more polite hour for phone calls. Jack moved through the list one at a time, beginning with Mark and ending with General Hammond who was to get word to her father.

Daniel, Teal'c and Janet all showed up within two hours of receiving the phone call and by the time they left she could barely keep her eyes open and yet it was time to feed the baby again. "We can give him a bottle," the nurse offered, "but if you're planning to breastfeed, it's better if you feed him yourself."

Sam figured this was the beginning of many such sleepless moments. She reached out for her son then held him against her chest. Tired, perhaps, but so, so worth it. So worth everything, all the choices and decisions she'd had to make, all the changes, even worth the time in the mining camp. She looked over at Jack.

"It was worth it."

He smiled sleepily at her. "Yeah?"

"All of it. Absolutely."


	23. Epilogue

Sam was awoken out of a deep, much needed sleep by Thomas' cries. She shifted to get up but a large, warm palm fell on her forearm. "I'll get him," Jack's low voice rumbled in the quiet of their bedroom between the shrill cries coming through the baby monitor.

"Thank you," she said sleepily and sat up, unbuttoning her nightshirt as she moved. Jack had been offworld for two nights and she hadn't quite understood how difficult it would be to be the sole caretaker of a newborn. She switched on the lamp on her bedside table and waited.

Jack returned with the squalling baby in his arms, cooing nonsensical noises at his son. He laid the baby in Sam's waiting arms and Thomas latched on immediately – they'd gotten that part down to a fine science relatively quickly.

As she fed the baby, Jack sat down on the edge of the bed and watched. At first, it had made her self-conscious that he'd watch her breastfeed, but she was used to it now, three weeks in.

"What does it feel like?"

"Different. Good," she flushed. She didn't know how to tell her husband that there was a latent arousal that went along with breastfeeding. She'd read that it was normal and had to do with the prolactin hormone, but it still felt like a strange feeling to have. She wasn't ashamed by it, she just wasn't sure how to explain it. She'd read somewhere that if it didn't feel good, women wouldn't do it, but still...

"Different than when I..." he made a motion at her breasts.

"A little, yeah. Maybe a little the same, too."

"Ah." He reached up and smoothed the back of one knuckle down the baby's head against his downy blond hair. "You think he's going to be a blond?"

"I don't know. I hope not. I hope he looks like you."

"I think he's going to have your blue eyes."

"It's more likely he'll have your brown."

"But they've gotten so bright."

"They have," she agreed. But she'd been serious. She hoped her son would grow up to look just like his father, so handsome.

Jack got a serious look in his eyes and leaned over the baby to kiss her deeply. She responded, her body responded, and she got that tightening inside she always got when he'd turned her on. She wished she'd been cleared for sexual activity, but knew she'd have to wait.

"What was that for?" she asked him when he pulled back.

"You're just so damned beautiful," he said.

She blushed. She knew she had to look tired, with wild hair, but still he thought... maybe it was the baby at her breast, maybe it was like her pregnancy for him. She wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though. If her husband thought she was beautiful, she was going to take the compliment. "Thank you."

She felt the moment when it was time to switch breasts and popped the baby's mouth off with her pinky. Jack handed her a towel and she burped Thomas and then settled him in on the other side.

"He won't be so long this time," she said idly.

"It's okay."

"You can go back to bed. I can change him and put him back down."

"I'll do it," he said quickly.

"Thank you." As it turned out, Jack liked this part of having a baby. He was very hands-on and she was grateful. She hadn't known what to expect but she suspected she'd gotten lucky. She looked down at the baby in her arms. She'd definitely gotten lucky.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jacob held Thomas close to his chest with a huge grin on his face. "Another grandson."

Jack couldn't help but smile at his father-in-law. "You're good with that?"

"I think I'm supposed to be asking you that, Jack."

The smile slid of Jack's face, it was time to reassure Jacob that he couldn't be happier with the way things had turned out. "Yeah. I am. He's perfect."

"He doesn't look anything like Sam did when she was a baby," Jacob noted.

"No?" But Jack knew the baby was a dead ringer for him. Sam had pointed it out in a black and white baby photo Jack had shown her when she asked.

"Nope. Except for the blond hair and blue eyes."

Jack hoped the baby would keep Sam's eyes but he knew enough about genetics to know that it was unlikely. Especially considering Jacob's deep brown eyes. "Sam thinks his eyes are going to turn brown."

"Probably," Jacob nodded. "She probably hopes he'll look just like you."

Jack chuckled. "She might have said that."

"I know my daughter, Jack. She definitely said that."

The men shared a smile. The front door opened and Sam called out from the entry way, "I'm home."

"In here," Jack called her to the living room.

She stepped down into the room and swung her laptop bag down off her shoulder. "Crisis averted."

"I bet they're glad to have you back," Jacob said.

"They did fine while I was out," she demurred.

"Hammond said they had a team trapped offworld for six hours while you were giving birth. DHD trouble. Of course, if you hadn't gone into labor early..." he trailed off with a grin.

"Couldn't be helped, "she said with a saucy smile and reappropriated her baby from her father's arms. "Hi, little one," she cooed. She trailed her pinky finger down the baby's velvety cheek and Jack couldn't help but love the picture she made, standing there with their son. "How long are you here for?" she asked her father without taking her eyes off the baby.

"A week or so, though I'll head out to see Mark in a couple of days."

"That's not long," she said with a small frown.I

"Nope," he said and reached for the baby, "which is why you should give him back."

Thomas let out a cry at that moment. "Sorry dad, it's chow time."

"Well in that case, I guess you can keep him."

Sam chuckled and headed off in the direction of the nursery.

Jack turned his attention back to Jacob. "She'd like it if you could stay longer."

"It was all I could do to get away for the week," Jacob said with a sigh.

Jack nodded, but said a bit bitterly, "Important Tok'ra business you can't tell us anything about."

"Hey, if anyone understood  _classified_  I'd think it would be you."

"Yeah, yeah," Jack groused, but good-naturedly.

"George keeping you off rotation?"

"As much as possible," Jack agreed, "but we're still gone some. The missions are shorter, though. He's trying."

"Good."

"I'm not sure how much longer it'll last. It's already been a month."

"Don't worry about her too much, Jack, she'll be fine."

Jack was sure she would be. She was an excellent mother. But babies don't let you get too much sleep and she always looked a little tired. "I don't worry about her. I worry about not being around."

Jacob nodded. "You're going to miss some things, son. Try not to beat yourself up about it."

"Easier said than done."

"She's not going to hold it against you."

"I know." And he did. They'd talked about it, she knew what his job entailed.

"You three are going to be fine," Jacob predicted.

Jack looked off in the direction of the nursery. And he really felt like that was true.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"He's perfect," Janet declared. "Of course, I'm not a pediatrician, but he seems to be doing fine despite being early.

"That's what his doctor said," Sam agreed. And she had to agree with her friend also that her son was perfect. His bright blue eyes had been darkening the last several weeks and she suspected that they'd eventually turn brown. She'd made no secret that she hoped they would. Jack poked fun at her about it, but she was hopeful. Her husband's expressive, dark eyes were windows into his soul and she hoped she'd be able to say the same for her son's.

"When is everyone else getting here?" Daniel asked from the dining room. He was holding a six-pack of beer in his hands and Sam shooed him towards the kitchen.

"An hour, maybe?"

They were having a small gathering so everyone who hadn't met the baby and who wanted to could. She suspected it was really just an excuse for Jack to throw things on the grill.

"Where's Jack?" Daniel asked.

"Still at the mountain," she replied. "He'll be here soon."

Teal'c walked in from outside and made a beeline for Janet. "I will hold the infant," he offered, but if there was one thing Sam had learned about Teal'c it was that he had a soft spot for babies. Apparently it wasn't appropriate for Jaffa fathers to be that involved with infant children, but he'd been a rebel, or so he'd said, in perhaps different words.

Janet laughed and gave the baby up. Sam still wasn't used to the sight of the massive man holding the tiny baby and she reached for her camera on the coffee table and snapped a quick picture. She looked at the digital photo and decided it was one for the baby book.

Fifteen minutes later, and with Teal'c still hogging the baby despite Daniel's insistence that it was his turn, Jack walked through the door. "We having a party today or what?" he asked jovially then stepped all the way in to reveal company standing behind him.

"Dad!" Sam said, surprised.

"I was able to get away."

"He means his mission was scrubbed."

Jacob shot Jack a dirty look. "So I thought I'd spend some more time with you guys while I had the chance.

Sam hugged her father. "I'm happy you could be here." She looked around her living room at her former team, her best friend, her father and her baby.

No, her life wasn't anything like she'd really ever pictured, and no things hadn't happened in the most ideal way, but she was happy. She looked over and locked eyes with Jack. His smile went all the way into the depths of his eyes. He shot her a wink.

"So," he asked with a clap of his hands, "who brought the beer?"

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been beta'd by the lovely Fems, but I have a bad habit of doing things to it after she's seen it or not fixing something when she tells me to, so all mistakes are mine alone.


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